About Books

  • Tangleds Threads revealed …

    8 Comments

    Here is (more or less) the final cover for Tangled Threads, the fourth book in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series which will come out on April 26, 2011.

    Once again, big kudos go out to Tony Mauro, who created the cover art. So far, Tony has done all the covers for the books in the series, and I think they just keep getting better and better. Every time I think that he can’t possibly top the last cover, he comes up with a way to do it. Thanks, Tony! 😉

    In other news, the book is up for pre-order at Amazon. It doesn’t look like it’s up at Barnes & Noble yet, but hopefully, it will be up there before too much longer. (And no, I have no control over when either Amazon or B&N puts my books up for pre-order.)

    Those of you who read Venom have already seen this, since it was in the back of the book, but you can read the first chapter of Tangled Threads on the website here.

    Now that I have the final cover art, I can get some bookmarks made. I’ll post here on the blog when I have those and how readers can get them.

    I also plan to write another free short story or two to tie in with Tangled Threads. It will probably be a while before I get to these, though. I’ve got back-to-back deadlines through the end of the year already. I’m thinking at least one of the stories will be from Jo-Jo’s point of view, but we’ll see where my muse takes me.

    For now, I’m just going to sit back and admire my shiny new cover.

  • E-book, paper book, anyone got a book …

    12 Comments

    One thing that kind of surprised me with the recent release of Venom is that a few people e-mailed me and asked me which format that I wanted them to buy of the book. This is the first time this has ever happened — that people asked me which format to buy.

    My answer? I really don’t care.

    Why have people asked me this? Well, most folks have said that they like to support authors and want to buy the format that gives me the biggest royalty. I make a little more on e-books than I do on the paper copies — about 95 cents versus 64 cents per copy sold. I certainly appreciate the sentiment — really, I do — but I don’t care if you buy an e-book, a paper copy, an audio book, or get it for free from the library. (And yes, I get royalties on library sales).

    You’re the reader. It’s your hard-earned money that you’re shelling out, so buy the format that you want. I’m just happy that folks even read my books in the first place. Everything else is just gravy on top of that. LOL.

    Several folks have also asked me about my stance on e-readers. I’m all for ’em. I’m for anything that encourages people to read, and I think e-readers do that to some extent. You never have to worry about a book being sold out if you have an e-reader, and you can start reading immediately. I can see the appeal of that. Plus, if you spend $150 on an e-reader, one would think that you would want to get your money’s worth and use it quite a bit. In other words, read, read, read.

    Now, I don’t have an e-reader myself. I’m on the computer so much that I want a paper book to curl up with when I’m reading. But I may get an e-reader someday, especially if the prices ever drop below $100.

    So you guys make the decision about which format of my books you want to buy. It’s your money, and your choice. Hopefully, you’ll think that it was money and time well-spent in the end.

  • ·

    Sold, baby!

    18 Comments

    Some of you have seen this mentioned in the various guest blogs and interviews that I did for Venom, but I wanted to wait until after the blog tour was over to make the official announcement. I’ve got some excellent news to report — I’ve sold a young adult urban fantasy series! Huzzah!

    It’s going to be called the Mythos Academy series, and the first book is titled Touch of Frost. Here’s what it’s about:

    Gwen Frost is a 17-year-old Gypsy girl with the gift of psy­chom­e­try — or the abil­ity to know an object’s his­tory just by touch­ing it. Gwen can see everyone who’s ever touched an object — and she can feel their emotions too, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Gwen uses her magic to track down objects that other kids have lost like cell phones, wallets, and purses — for a price.

    After a serious freakout with her magic and her mom’s death, Gwen gets shipped off to Mythos Acad­emy, a school for the rich, privileged descen­dants of ancient war­riors like Spar­tans, Ama­zons, Valkyries, and more. Gwen doesn’t know one end of the sword from the other, and she doesn’t fit in with the other kids. But when Jasmine Ashton, the most popular girl in school is mur­dered, and Gwen herself is attacked, Gwen decides to use her Gypsy gift to figure out who killed the other girl and why — and finds herself learning some secrets that just might kill her …

    Basically, the book is kind of like Veron­ica Mars meets the movie 300. I’ve always loved mythology, and I thought it would be fun to write a YA book with that sort of backdrop. Since the books are for young adults, they aren’t quite as dark and gritty as my Elemental Assassin series, but I would say that the Mythos Academy books are for older teens. There is some drinking, violence, and sex in the books.

    If you like my Elemental Assassin books, you might like the Mythos Academy books too. The voice is very similar, and both series feature the same things — a strong, sassy heroine, cool magic/world building, and a seriously nasty bad guy. Gwen’s love interest — a Spartan warrior named Logan Quinn — is just a little dreamier than Gin’s love interest is. LOL.

    The deal is for three books, which will be published by Kensington. Touch of Frost, the first book, will be out in August 2011, while the second book, Kiss of Frost, will be out in December 2011.

    So in 2011, I’ll have four books out — Tangled Threads (Elemental Assassin #4) in May; Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) in August; book 5 (Elemental Assassin series) in October; and Kiss of Frost (Mythos Academy #2) in December. It’s going to be a busy year. 😉

    The  third book in the Mythos Academy series is untitled at this point. It should be out sometime in 2012, but of course, that could change. Ideally, I’d like to write at least four or five books in the series, but that will depend on sales, like everything else does.

    Anyway, I’ll let you know when I get more details. And of course, I’ll be posting the covers, a FAQ, character info, and more here on the website as they become available and I find time to write them.

    In the meantime, I’m doing the happy dance! 😉