Mythos Academy series

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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! 😉

  • 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.