About Books

  • Rob-Con 2014 is approaching …

    Today, I wanted to give a shout-out to Robert Pilk and John Stone at Mountain Empire Comics. They are gearing up for Rob-Con 2014, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 2 at Viking Hall in Bristol, Tenn.

    I’ll be among the guests — writers, artists, and others — attending the con, and I’ll be signing books.

    If you’ve never been before, Rob-Con is a really fun event. There are tons of comics, toys, figurines, games, and more for sale, and there is also a costume contest. If you like comics or just fantasy in general, come and check out the event this year.

    Hope to see you there.

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    Poison Promise first chapter online …

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    Book #11I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve posted the first chapter of Poison Promise, Elemental Assassin #11, on the website. To read the chapter, go here, scroll down, and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    Also, Poison Promise will be out on July 22. It is up for pre-order at most sites now, including the following:

    Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / iTunes / Kobo / Audible 

    And here is the cover blurb for Poison Promise. This does contain spoilers for previous books in the series:

    I specialize in making death wishes come true.

    Pop quiz. Which do you think is deadlier: Burn, the nastiest drug ever to hit the mean streets of Ashland, or me, Gin Blanco, the assassin known as the Spider? Answer: Me—because I don’t kill you slowly.

    Normally, drug dealers aren’t my department. But I’m turning up the heat on some relentless Burn-pushing thugs who won’t leave my friends alone. Pushers who have my cop sister beside herself with rage, so I’m stepping up to keep her from doing something stupid and getting herself killed. Once I’m in, I’m in, and these folks have picked their poison: the Spider’s venom. But even bad guys have their good days, and sometimes even my Ice and Stone magic isn’t enough. For behind the drug is a vicious vampire with a scientific eye for results. And behind him… trouble like I haven’t seen since I took down my legendary nemesis, Mab Monroe.

    Hope everyone enjoys the sneak peak at the book. Happy reading!

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    Finale fun … or not …

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    Note: I posted this over at Magical Musings last week, but I wanted to share it here too.

    So most of the fall TV shows have wrapped up, and the summer shows are starting. I’m looking forward to the start of Covert Affairs this month.

    For the most part, I’ve enjoyed all the season finales (and even the cliffhangers) over the past few weeks of shows like Arrow, The Blacklist, and The Good Wife, but there’s one finale that I’m still thinking about—the finale of How I Met Your Mother.

    Oh, boy.

    How I Met Your MotherI’ve always really enjoyed HIMYM, but I was not a fan of the finale. In fact, it sort of ruined the whole show for me, especially since the point of the show for nine seasons seemed to be Ted finding the Mother, the love of his life. But if you’ve seen the finale, you know the show was really about something and someone else entirely. I kind of feel like the whole thing was a bait and switch.

    Finales can be hard to do, especially with a long-running series like HIMYM. It can be difficult to wrap up every single plot thread and leave fans with a satisfying conclusion. But, man. I was not expecting everything that happened in the HIMYM finale, and it was not satisfying to me at all. I’ve enjoyed watching reruns of the show, but now that I know how it ends? Even the reruns have lost some of their charm. Like I said, the finale sort of ruined the whole show for me.

    I’ve been thinking about book finales too. The finale of the Hunger Games trilogy is another one that didn’t work for me. I kind of felt like everything that Katniss went through was for nothing, since a certain character doesn’t make it back home at the end of the series. On the other hand, I thought the end of the Harry Potter series was very well done and let readers leave the characters knowing that Harry and company were in a good place.

    Maybe it’s cliché, but at the end of the day—or TV show or book—I want the characters to get their happy endings. To me, those are the most satisfying finales.

    What about you guys? Did you enjoy the HIMYM finale? What do you think are some good book and TV finales?

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    Authors After Dark is approaching …

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    Today, I wanted to give a shout-out to Stella Price and the Authors After Dark convention, which will be held Aug. 6-10 in Charlotte, N.C.

    I’ll be among the authors attending. The master of ceremonies is Alexandra Ivy, and you can see the list of all the authors attending here.

    AAD is a great, reader-friendly conference, and I’ll be participating in several panels and other events. And, if you’re in the Charlotte area, there will be a Saturday afternoon book signing that is open to the public. You can see the schedule of events here, and the registration information is here.

    If you’ve never been to a book conference, AAD is a really good one to try. About 500 people usually attend AAD, so it has a small conference feel, and it is easy to find/hang out with the authors, bloggers, and readers that you’ve chatted with online. Plus, there are always a ton of book giveaways, food, and other treats. Last year, there was ice cream social one afternoon, which was really cool.

    Hope to see you there.