• · ·

    Touch of Frost Excerpts …

    21 Comments

    I’ve actually had some free time lately, so I’ve (slowly) been going through and updating the website. One of the things I’ve done is post the first two chapters of Touch of Frost on the Excerpts page. Click here to read the chapters.

    Touch of Frost is the first book in my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series about Gwen Frost, a 17-year-old girl with pyschometry magic, or the ability to know an object’s history just by touching it. After a seri­ous freak-out with her magic, Gwen finds her­self shipped off to Mythos Acad­emy, a school for the descen­dants of ancient war­riors like Spar­tans, Valkyries, and more. Hopefully, the first two chapters will give everyone a sense of what the story/magic/ world building are like in the series.

    I’ve also created a Mythos Academy page that has frequently asked questions, characters, a tour of campus, and other information on it. I’m still working on the website/pages, but I wanted to let everyone know about the new excerpts and info.

    Happy reading! 😉

  • Guest review: The Sevenfold Spell

    8 Comments

    I recently hosted author Tia Nevitt on my blog, and she gave away an e-copy of her book, The Sevenfold Spell, to a commentator. The person who won the book was Laurel, and she was nice enough to offer up a review:

    Since I’ve got my blog-won copy of The Sevenfold Spell here, I thought it might be nice to offer a public thank you to Jennifer and Tia for the very enjoyable read!

    You know how fairy tales used to be grimmer and a bit naughty before the Victorian era scrubbed them into stories for children? Well, The Sevenfold Spell is a throwback to the older tradition and all the richer for it.

    Talia is our heroine. But not the princess. She’s not even pretty. If you asked her mama, she’d tell you the same thing. Talia and her mother scrape out their living as spinsters and Talia manages to accrue enough for a dowry. She’s even got herself a fella, Willard, who is just as plain as she is.  Then the evil fairy casts the fateful curse and everything comes undone. Talia’s livelihood is destroyed on orders from the Crown and her marriage prospects unraveled by Willard’s father, who ships him off to the monastery. Nobody wants an ugly girl with no money. Chaos and ruination come to the peasants for the sake of a princess they’ve never seen. And thus the story begins.

    There were so many things to like about this book. Talia is fully developed and relatable, a practical sort who picks her way through a life distorted by the edges of the curse. The way she grows and changes through the story is organic, not forced, although the circumstances dictate a lot of her choices.

    The author isn’t afraid to let things get a bit salty, but there is no superfluous or particularly graphic sex. It reads as part of the story instead of “insert erotica scene here”. And my very favorite thing: nobody has an out-of-body experience on their first trip to the rodeo.

    All the usual suspects are there but not in the way you’d expect. An idiot-savant princess, a handsome prince who is helpless to rescue anyone, the spinster crone who takes on a fairy, and a very satisfactory ending that takes into account the entire scope of the story. The finish is romantic but not so sweet you need an insulin pump when you put it down.

    The Sevenfold Spell is a short read but very intricate. It’s an artful combination of a nod and a sly wink to the fairy tale trope in general. I liked it so much that I already called my sister and told her to put on her Nook at the first opportunity. Congrats to Tia!

    Thanks to Laurel for the review. 😉

  • 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.