Mythos Academy series

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    Touch of Frost cover revealed (again) …

    21 Comments

    Well, it looks like I posted too soon.

    My publisher has decided to change the cover art for Touch of Frost, the first book in my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series. I’ve known about this for a while. In fact, my editor told me that they’d decided to change the cover a few days after I posted the first cover here. That’s how it goes sometimes. LOL.

    At left is what the new cover will look like — aka the girl cover. Below, I’ve posted what the old cover looked like — aka the gargoyle cover.

    It’s not uncommon for cover art to be changed. Like the books themselves, the cover art goes through several different rounds of development and lots of folks have to sign off on the cover art before it’s finally approved.

    I like both covers, but I think the girl cover is a better fit for the book/series. To me, it’s a little hipper and edgier and says young adult urban fantasy more than the gargoyle cover did. I think that’s important  since Touch of Frost is all about my heroine, Gwen Frost, and is told from her first-person point of view. Here’s the back cover copy for the book:

    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 …

    So now that I have the final cover for the books, I can go forward with things on my end, like getting flyers and bookmarks made. I’ll post here when I get the bookmarks and let you guys know how to get some.

    By the way, I’ve seen the preliminary cover for Kiss of Frost, the second book in the series, and it is freaking awesome. I can’t wait to share that cover with you guys. 😉

    Which cover do you guys like better? Share in the comments.

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    First Frost e-short story …

    6 Comments

    Well, I’ve turned in the page proofs so I guess I can announce this now: I’m doing an e-short story for the Mythos Academy series.

    The story is called First Frost and is a prequel to Touch of Frost, the first book in the series that’s coming out on July 26 from Kensington. Basically, First Frost fills in some of the details of how and why Gwen winds up going to Mythos Academy and gives folks a sneak peak at the academy and some of the characters there. It’s sort of like the Spider’s Bargain short story that I wrote for the Elemental Assassin series.

    First Frost is about 40 pages long (around 11,000 words), and I believe the plan is to offer the story as a 99-cent download through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. (Although don’t quote me on that just yet.) I’m told that the story will be released in July. I’m assuming early July since Touch of Frost is out on July 26, but I don’t have a firm release date yet or exactly how this is going to work.

    Now, because my publisher is releasing the story as an e-book, that means that I can’t post it here on my website. I’ll probably be able to post the first page or two as a teaser, but that’s it. We haven’t worked out all the details yet.

    I know some folks will be disappointed that the story isn’t available on my site for free. But I thought letting my publisher offer it as a download would be a really good marketing opportunity and hopefully attract some new readers, not only for the Mythos Academy series but for my Elemental Assassin series as well.

    E-books and short e-reads are really taking off right now, and I think offering the story as a download is a smart thing to do. More people visit Amazon, etc. than look at my website. Maybe having a 99-cent download will convince more folks to surf on over here and try my books. I don’t know, but I figured that it was worth a shot.

    Of course, you don’t have to read First Frost to enjoy Touch of Frost, but if you like bonus material, you might enjoy it.

    I’ll post more details, including the cover, when I get them …

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    Touch of Frost cover …

    7 Comments

    Some of you may have seen this on Amazon already, but here’s the cover for Touch of Frost, the first book in my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series that’s coming out on July 26. Pretty cool, huh?

    Of course, I’ll be doing all the usual things now that I have the cover art, including making flyers and bookmarks. It will probably be several weeks before I get around to doing those things, since I’m buried with work right now, but when I get the bookmarks made, I’ll post about them here on the blog.

    In the meantime, Touch of Frost is up for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Also, Kiss of Frost, the second book in the series that’s coming out Nov. 29, is also up on Amazon already. So go forth and pre-order, if you are so inclined.

    Here’s the back cover copy for Touch of Frost:

    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 …

    Are you ready for July yet? I am. 😉

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    Excerpts update …

    8 Comments

    Okay, I think I’m pretty much done with the latest round of website updates. Huzzah!

    One of the things I’ve done is post the first chapter for Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book in the Elemental Assassin series that’s coming out on Sept. 27. Click here to read the chapter. There’s nothing too spoilery in the chapter, but if you absolutely don’t want to know some of the stuff that happens in Tangled Threads, then don’t read the chapter. You’ve been warned.

    Also, several folks have e-mailed and asked why the short stories that I mention for Tangled Threads on the Excerpts page haven’t been posted to the website yet. For one, it seems like every time I sit down to do that, something else comes up that I have to take care of. LOL. Also, I’ve offered the stories to my publisher to see if they want to use them in some sort of marketing promotion, and I’m waiting to hear back from them. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted and let you know when (and where) the stories are available.

    Regarding the Haints and Hobwebs Elemental Assassin short story, I can’t post the entire story since it’s going to appear in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance that’s coming out in October. But I have posted the first two pages as a teaser. Click here to read those pages.

    Also, don’t forget to check out the page for my new Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series. You can also read the first two chapters of Touch of Frost, the first book in the series that will be out on July 26. Click here to read the chapters.

    Okay, I think that’s all the updates I have for now. Happy reading! 😉

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    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! 😉