Lucienne Diver's Drivel

New! Shiny!

Word has it that my latest novel FANGTASTIC is already downloading to Kindles! (Though the official release date for the printed version is the 8th.) I hope some of you will want to check it out, view the Vamped series music video, download the MP3 and/or enter the get caught reading contest that ends on January 7th.

In other shiny news (yes, I’m a Browncoat, can you tell?), three new Susan Sizemore novels are newly available digitally as well:

NO PROMISES (formerly ON A LONG AGO NIGHT)

Don’t you just love this cover? NO PROMISES is your one-stop shopping for adventure, harems, great escapes and a scandalous affair. What more could you want?

THE PRICE OF INNOCENCE

Pirates, temptation, a reckless passion and a secret past. Sold!

MY OWN TRUE LOVE

Gypsies, danger, time travel and a textbook example of “be careful what you wish for.”

Lots of great reading for the new year!

Shadow City by Diana Pharaoh Francis!

Yesterday was the book birthday for Diana Pharaoh Francis’s SHADOW CITY, the third book in her amazing Horngate Witches series for Pocket. Before I post the short blurb for the book below, I have to share a couple of my very favorite quotes for this series:

“Diana Pharaoh Francis is a wicked, wicked woman… My heart wept for the characters, and I’m foaming at the mouth at the chance to see what happens next.” — Bitten by Books

“This is urban fantasy with the volume set on high, rattling the windows and provoking the neighbors.” —The Green Man Review

Synopsis:

The world is falling apart. The magical apocalypse has come. Now is the time to guard the covenstead against both raiders and refugees. But Max has been stolen by a powerful demi-god who is determined to force her to find a way to use a magical power she never knew she had—even if it kills her. Meanwhile, back in Horngate, a Fury is birthing. When the creature breaks free of the fragile bonds that enclose her, her rage will scour the covenstead from the earth.

Max finds herself in the Shadow City, a place of mysteries and magic, where she must battle for her freedom or become a slave to creatures of dreadful greed and power. Back in Horngate, Alexander must swallow his anger and pride if he hopes to defeat the Fury, a creature that no one has ever successfully fought before.

In the end, it will be courage, friendship, faith and loyalty that win the day. Or else so one will live to see tomorrow.

Wanna check out Di’s fiction? You can read the first chapter of SHADOW CITY here or free stories she has posted on her website here.

Other books in the Horngate Witches series:

Girlfriends Cyber Circuit presents Laurie Faria Stolarz

I’m over at Magical Words today talking about “The Writer’s Journey.”

Over here I want to wish my Girlfriends Cyber Circuit sister Laurie Faria Stolarz a happy belated book birthday for DEADLY LITTLE VOICES!

DEADLY LITTLE VOICES

ISBN-13: 9781423131618

Disney/Hyperion Books for Children

Synopsis:

Camelia Hammond thought her powers of psychometry gave her only the ability to sense the future through touch. But now she’s started to hear voices. Cruel voices. Berating her, telling her how ugly she is, that she has no talent, and that she’d be better off dead. Camelia is terrified for her mental stability, especially since her deranged aunt with a suicidal history, has just moved into the house. As if all of that weren’t torturing enough, Camelia’s ex-boyfriend, Ben, for whom she still harbors feelings and who has similar psychometric abilities, has started seeing someone else. Even her closest friends, Kimmie and Wes, are unsure how to handle her erratic behavior.

With the line between reality and dream consistently blurred, Camelia turns to pottery to get a grip on her emotions. She begins sculpting a figure skater, only to receive frightening premonitions that someone’s in danger. But who is the intended victim? And how can Camelia help that person when she’s on the brink of losing her own sanity?

Excerpt from DEADLY LITTLE VOICES:

“You’re just one big fat joke,” the voice hisses.

I cover my ears, but the insults keep coming.

“Just do it,” a voice whispers. It’s followed by more voices, of different people. They talk over each other and mingle together, producing one clear cut message – that I’m a waste of a life.

I rock back and forth, trying to remain in control. I smother my ears with the sheet. Press my forehead against my knees. Pound my heels into the floor, bracing myself for what comes next.

Meanwhile, there’s a drilling sensation inside my head; it pushes through the bones of my skull, and makes me think that I’m going crazy.

“Please,” I whisper. More tears sting my eyes. I shake my head, wondering if maybe I’m already dead, if maybe the voices are part of hell.

And now from Camelia Hammond, the main character of Laurie’s TOUCH series…

How to bring your psychometric senses to fruition

1. Make yourself comfortable in a place that feels “sacred” to you. For some it’s outside, surrounded by nature; for others it’s a favorite chair or surrounded by candles; for me, it’s wherever I’m doing pottery.
2. Close your eyes and concentrate on your breath, letting go of any stray or nervous thoughts.
3. Now, take an object in your hand. A good idea is to have someone give you something they’ve owned for a long time, i.e. a favorite bracelet or a set of keys.
4. Close your eyes again and concentrate on this object. Be aware of any thoughts or feelings that come about as a result of holding this object. Talk those ideas through, even if they seem silly or insignificant, but never make information up.

Remember, this takes practice and a bit of experimenting. The goal is to begin tuning in to your own inner awareness and your ability of perception. What often works for me is asking a question aloud, and then sculpting out the answer, using my power of touch in a creative and organic way.

Good Luck!

For more information, go here: www.lauriestolarz.com

Happy Book Birthdays

I’m so excited to wish Molly Cochran and Donn Cortez happy book birthdays today!

I’ve loved Molly Cochran’s work ever since the co-written Arthurian classic THE FOREVER KING. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to present her debut young adult novel LEGACY from Simon & Schuster/ Paula Wiseman Books.

LEGACY by Molly Cochran

Blurb:

When her widowed father dumps 16-year-old Katy Jessevar in a boarding school in Whitfield, Massachusetts, she has no idea that fate has just opened the door to both her future and her past. Nearly everyone in Whitfield is a witch, as is Katy herself, although she has struggled all her life to hide her unusual talents. Stuck at a boarding school where her fellow studens seem to despise her, Katy soon discovers that Whitfield is the place where her mother commited suicide under mysterious circumstances when Katy was just a small child. With dark forces converging on Whitfield, it’s up to Katy to unravel her family’s many secrets to save the boy she loves and the town itself from destruction.

Quotes:

“Cochran’s first title for young adults is a rip-roaring adventure” – Booklist

“In her YA debut, bestselling adult author Cochran (the Forever King trilogy) presents an exciting and well-written tale of contemporary witchcraft and romance.” – Publishers Weekly

“A fast-paced, electrifying read! My heart throbbed for the tender romance trapped in a world of boarding-school backstabbing. With a courageous yet achingly human heroine, Molly Cochran made me believe in magic!” – Jeri Smith-Ready, award-winning author of the SHADE trilogy

(Available everywhere: Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Nook, Kindle, Chapters/Indigo, Reader Store/Sony…)

Also brand spankin’ new Donn Cortez’s novel REMOTE, sequel to his dark thriller THE CLOSER, now in digital for Apple, Kindle, Nook….

Blurb:

The Closer is back.

Jack Salter is still hunting killers, but his new quarry is unlike the others. The man who calls himself Remote wants the same thing Jack does, to make the world a better place by removing those who do evil–but Remote’s methods are even more extreme. To catch him, Jack will have to seek an alliance with him–one that leads to a trap with no exit. Alone and unarmed, Jack must fight for his freedom in the bizarre lair of a monster whose relationship to pain is even stranger than Jack’s.

Meanwhile, his partner Nikki is fighting a battle of her own–to break the gargantuan, psychotic biker named Goliath to her will, before he breaks out of the improvised prison she’s keeping him in.

There are many secrets to be uncovered–but the Closer’s usual methods are not an option. To get to the truth, he’ll have to go further than he ever has before, past the very edge of his remaining humanity.

My December Newsletter

Dear Readers,

To borrow from a recently received card from the wonderful Fielding Agency “Happy Everything!” In the spirit of that, I’m so excited to give you all a gift that I hope you’ll enjoy. It’s one-size fits all, which normally would give my heroine, Gina, fits, but in this case she completely approves (since it’s all about her). It’s theVamped series music video! I’ll be making the single available for free download on my website as well, as soon as I can commune with my webmistress about how to do it.

I hope you’ll find the song and the series equally addictive, especially since the latest, FANGTASTIC, is coming out this January! Just a few weeks away! I’ve only seen one review so far, but it’s a doozy from Kirkus Reviews, “Gina never fails to please, as she strides down the runway of afterlife with just the right mix of humor, make-up advice, youthful lust that never crosses the line and a kung-fu style all her own. This one doesn’t miss a beat.” (Obligatory buy links: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kindle, Books-a-Million, Powells, Indiebound, Chapters/Indigo, Reader Store (Sony)….)

In celebration, I’m holding a get caught reading contest for theVamped series right now. Facebook, Tweet, blog or otherwise post pics of yourself, your pets, your resident spirit or whathaveyou reading one of the Vamped books (VAMPED, REVAMPED or FANGTASTIC, if you manage to score an early copy) by January 7th, be sure to let me know about it and you’ll be entered to win a $30 shopping spree at either Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. Winner will be chosen at random, though I’d love to post some of the fun pics on my blog, so please send ’em my way and let me know if they’re good to go. The best may inspire some extra special swag and signed copies of the new book. Check my blog on January 8th for the winner and more fabulous fun in the form of a new contest, where I’ll be giving away a lightweight 6″ Kindle with carrying case! You can play more than once, so there’s no need to wait. (Full details.)

If you’re looking instead for BAD BLOOD, the first novel in the Latter-Day Olympians series, it’s already available in digital and will be out in trade paperback May 1, 2012. I’m hard at work on the sequel, CRAZY IN THE BLOOD, which will be out in digital later that year from Samhain (and print a few months after).

bad blood cover

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What Else is New and Exciting?

Beginning January 9th, some wonderful paranormal authors (in the order that we’ll appear: Karen Whiddon, Faith Hunter, me, Carol Berg and Diana Pharaoh Francis) will be doing a special multi-author promotion over at Bitten By Books. We’ll be doing daily giveaways and a scavenger hunt to be concluded at the end of the week and submitted for the chance to win a special grand prize. More as it approaches!

Well, that’s about all the current news that’s fit to print, but I think it’s enough, don’t you?
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Once again, I want to wish you all a Happy Everything and an Amazing New Year!

Want to follow me? Here are a few links:

A few new links

Two new links:

The new Knight Agency newsletter is out! Details about the iPad giveaway, tonight’s chat and other goodness.

For Figment users – come follow me there. I have two free stories up you might enjoy.

Oh, and don’t forget about the Fangtastic pre-release party! Get caught reading one of the books in the Vamped series and be entered for a chance to win a $30 shopping spree. Details here.

Great news and guest blogger Beth Cornelison

A few quick things before I introduce my guest blogger today:

1- The Knight Agency is giving away an iPad and thirteen free e-books to go on it to one lucky winner who signs up for our newsletter. Details are here. Good luck to you all! (Wish I could enter.)

2- I want to wish a HUGE congratulations to P.N. Elrod, whose story “Beach Girl” won an Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Readers’ Choice Award! To see what this means to her, you can check out her blog, written when the story was published. So sweet. So well-deserved!

3- The Knight Agency is also hosting a chat this Thursday, December 15th at 9 pm ET with THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS co-authors Cec Murphey and Marley Gibson, complete with giveaways…because we’re just that cool. Details are here.

4- New in digital this week are reissues of Christie Golden’s wonderful Chronicles of Verrold, INSTRUMENT OF FATE and KING’S MAN AND THIEF (or click here for IOF on Kindle or Apple; here for KING’S MAN on Kindle, Apple). She’s a New York Times bestseller for her Warcraft and Star Wars tie-ins. Read her original work and see why!

Now, I’m pleased to present Beth Cornelison, whose new release, which I talked about earlier this week, is currently available at all etailers. It’s a story that’s close to my heart, perhaps because my husband is also a hot, motorcycle-riding man.

A different sort of hero or why I love Kevin Fuller by Beth Cornelison

After publishing umpteen (that’s a real number, isn’t it?) books with Harlequin and other mainstream publishers, I recently took the plunge into the indie publishing waters (via the services of The Knight Agency). TRUST IN ME is a small-town contemporary romance set in South Carolina and features a different sort of hero than the usual romance hottie.

In TRUST IN ME, after breaking free from her overbearing father and cheating fiancé, Claire Albritton wants nothing more than to take control of her life and learn to fight her own battles. Kevin Fuller believes he must rescue damsels in distress, and Claire is decidedly out of her element in small town South Carolina. When trouble inevitably finds Claire, Kevin’s white knight protection and heroics are exactly what Claire doesn’t want. But his kisses…that’s another matter.

I had mixed feelings as I wrote Kevin’s character. As much as I love, love, love him (did I mention how much I love him? 🙂 ), he’s not the typical romance hero. I wondered, Would readers accept him and fall in love the way I did? Would they dismiss him for the very things I felt made him special?

Don’t get me wrong, Kevin has plenty of the stuff that makes a hero sexy (he’s got the hot body, the motorcycle, the killer smile, above average looks). He’ll also put himself in harm’s way to save the heroine, stand by his beliefs at all costs, and work relentlessly to reach his goals. Yep, he’s got integrity in spades. He also has a wry sense of humor that he uses as a shield to protect himself from personal pain, and soft spot for the underdog.

So what makes him so different? A few things. Kevin is no million mogul or Arab sheik. He’s a hardware store manager who’s deeply in debt and living paycheck to paycheck thanks to his mother’s medical bills. Kevin is a pacifist, more Boy Scout than warrior. He’s also mostly beta, a best friend and warm place to land instead of a brooding Alpha.

While plenty of romance authors, and subgenres for that matter, employ the beta hero with great success, Kevin represents my farthest venture into betaland, and so I’m holding my breath. Will readers love him as much as I do? Will they see that Kevin is just what Claire wants and needs, her perfect match, and fall for him as she does?

I hope so. For me, Kevin is much more down-to-earth and realistic than a millionaire entrepreneur or Alpha secret agent. He’s the nice guy we all wish for our daughters, the man of morals and a work ethic we admire in the news. He’s the good guy we cheer for when he wins in the end, the happy ending that gives us all hope. Frankly, he’s the kind of guy we need more of in this world…and that’s why I love him.

TRUST IN ME is available for Kindle, Nook and other ereaders from the usual ebook retail sites.

Beth Cornelison

OPERATION BABY RESCUE– October 2011- Silhouette Romantic Suspense

TRUST IN ME- December 2011- Amazon Kindle & B&N Nook

SOLDIER’S PREGNANCY PROTOCOL- Black Ops Rescues Bk 1- June 2012

www.bethcornelison.com

Where Have All the Pirates Gone? by Debra Mullins

Today, I’m pleased to present my guest blogger Debra Mullins, talking pirates in honor of her re-release of ONCE A MISTRESS!

Where Have All the Pirates Gone?

By Debra Mullins

When I was a kid, I used to watch the old swashbuckler movies with my dad on Sunday afternoons. We’re talking Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power—heck, even Burt Lancaster as the Crimson Pirate. Something about those wicked men of the sea fascinated me. I loved the swordplay and the adventure and the swinging across the ship on a rope. It set my romantic heart a-flutter!

Today I have a pirate book being re-released in digital format by Samhain’s new Retro Romance line. ONCE A MISTRESS has a new cover, but it was first published back in 1999 and is now out of print. It’s a book that’s close to my heart because it was the first book I ever finished (in seventh grade English class), as well as the first book I ever got published (many years later and after much revision).

Tall, dark and incognito pirate hero? Check.

Beautiful and fiery-yet-innocent heroine? Check.

Sultry Caribbean island? Check.

Evil no-one-can-catch-him pirate villain? Check.

Exciting battles at sea with canon fire and swordfights? Check!

Sensual, hot romance between the pirate hero and his captive? Check, check!

In ONCE A MISTRESS, Diana Covington is the daughter of a wealthy businessman on the island of Jamaica and knows that someday she’ll be married off to some well-to-do guy. But that doesn’t stop her from dreaming. She fantasizes about the pirates she hears talked about in whispers. When she gets kidnapped by the villainous Marcus in a plot to blackmail her father, her girlish fantasies are destroyed by harsh reality.

Our hero is Alex Rawnsley, a half Spanish Englishman who has sworn to bring Marcus to justice for the murder of his brother. In order to catch the uncatchable Marcus, Alex takes on the disguise of the wicked rival pirate El Moreno and tries to scuttle Marcus’s every scheme.

Alex’s vendetta is put on hold when he has to rescue Diana from Marcus. But once he’s got her, he can’t just take her home because Marcus will only kidnap her again. Instead he keeps her on board as captain’s woman, a ruse that starts out as a protection for her and ends up being more than either of them expected.

It’s just so much fun to lock people in a cabin together and see what happens! Especially when one of them is a good, old-fashioned pirate.

You know, not only were the pirates of the old movies dashing swordsmen with compelling reasons why they turned to piracy, they were always silver-tongued devils who could melt the heroine’s knees with the right word. Back in the eighties and early nineties, there were dozens of romances featuring pirate heroes. Then they slowly began to disappear, replaced by cowboys and dukes.

Now, I like a good cowboy and have even written a couple of westerns (being released in February and April of 2012), but those dudes can’t compare with a good pirate. And let’s face it, my smooth-talking captain can take your fancy duke any day. I mean, pirate captains are usually handsome and compelling and very attractive with their air of command. I would also go so far as to say they are willing to break the rules to get what they want. (Remember piracy, by definition, was illegal.) You mean to tell me a man like that doesn’t get your blood pumping?

I think we can all agree that pirates are really hot, and Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp as pirates certainly held their own with the dashing rogues of old. In fact, I was certain there would be a rash of pirate romance novels after that movie came out! But no.

So where have all the pirates gone? I’ve done my best to take you on a high seas adventure with a really hot sea captain in ONCE A MISTRESS, but there are just so few pirate books any more. Anyone have a theory as to what happened? Is it that romance heroes simply can’t compare with Orlando or Errol or Johnny? What do you think?

New in digital

I was so crazed last week that while I tweeted, etc., I didn’t get the chance to post my Happy Book Birthday blog for CAT TALES by Faith Hunter and NIGHT OF THE TIGER by Doranna Durgin (well, technically, this one’s a story). So, I’m going to wish them a happy belated and crow about two other awesome books releasing this week (today and tomorrow, to be exact).

CAT TALES by Faith Hunter (Penguin eSpecial, available everywhere, but some quick links here to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and iTunes)

“Four stories from the world of “smart, sexy, ruthless” (New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison) heroine Jane Yellowrock—plus bonus material!

Explore the world of shape-shifter and vampire hunter Jane Yellowrock in these four stories, collected here for the first time. Meet Jane as she leaves the orphanage she was raised in…and encounters the witch who’ll become her future best friend. Discover the story behind Cajun cop Rick LaFleur’s cat tattoos—and the powerful witch who inked them. And, in the final, all-new story, find out what happened between Jane and Rick seconds after the end of Mercy Blade. Plus, get a never-before-seen index of vampire clans and alliances and a letter from the author about the origins of Jane Yellowrock.

And don’t miss a special excerpt: the first three chapters from the newest Jane Yellowrock novel, Raven Cursed—out January 2012!

NIGHT OF THE TIGER by Doranna Durgin (Nocturne Bite, available at eHarlequin, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and elsewhere)

From the moment she sees tiger shifter Scott O’Brien, Marlee Cerrosa can sense his aura of power, his alluring strength, and the gleam of something wildin his eyes. She also feels his returned interest in her—until he learns she’s a prisoner of the Sentinels and an accused traitor.

Marlee expects him to reject her, but instead he asks for her assistance in tracking down a mole in their base. If Marlee can help him, Scott can offer her redemption—and perhaps even a future together….

TRUST IN ME by Beth Cornelison (TKA Distribution, available Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.)

A hero for the rest of us?

Escaping the cheating fiancé and sheltered life her father has arranged for her, Claire Albritton wants nothing more than to take control of her life and learn to fight her own battles.

Kevin Fuller believes he must rescue damsels in distress and Claire is decidedly out of her element in small town South Carolina. When trouble inevitably finds Claire, Kevin’s white knight protection and heroics are exactly what Claire doesn’t want. But his kisses…that’s another matter.

ONCE A MISTRESS by Debra Mullins (Samhain’s Retro Romance line, available everywhere, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and Samhain itself)

Her love will capture the ultimate treasure—his heart.

Diana Covington is a dutiful daughter with a boring future all mapped out for her. A shipping fortune and lush Jamaican estate that will someday be hers, a husband of her father’s choice. Romance and Caribbean adventure exist only in her dreams, in which the Black Spaniard, El Moreno, plays a starring role.

Until she is kidnapped by the evil pirate Marcus, and her girlish fantasies quickly turn to nightmares.

Alex Rawnsley’s dark Spanish looks makes him the perfect choice to take on the identity of El Moreno. His mission is to bring Marcus to justice, but his heart thirsts for blood. Vengeance for his brother’s murder is within his grasp when Diana’s kidnapping throws a hitch in his strategy.

Snatching her from Marcus’s clutches is easy enough, but what to do with her now? He cannot return her home lest she be taken again. He has no choice but to keep the distracting, innocent beauty aboard his ship. In his cabin. In his bed. The temptation to make her his own grows stronger by the hour…but opening his heart to love may forever close the door on his quest for revenge.

FANGTASTIC PRE-RELEASE PARTY!

You know how when someone throws a party, folks always ask what they can bring? Well, you can bring the fun! Bring your wit and wisdom! Enter to win fabulous door prizes!

This month I’m holding a get caught reading contest in celebration of the January publication of FANGTASTIC, the third novel in my Vamped series.

Facebook, Tweet (hashtag #Vampedseries), blog or otherwise post pics of yourself, your pets, your resident spirit or whathaveyou reading one of the Vamped books and be sure to let me know about it by January 7^st and you’ll be entered to win a $30 shopping spree at either Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com! [Sorry, contests open to US residents only.]

Winner will be chosen at random, though I’d love to post some of the fun pics on my blog, so please send ‘em my way at luciennediver @ gmail.com (eliminating the spaces) and let me know if they’re good to go. The best may inspire some extra special swag and signed copies of the new book.

Check back for the winner and more fabulous fun on January 8^th, when I’ll be looking for Fangtastic slogans and giving away a lightweight 6” Kindle with carrying case! (Note: you can enter both, so no need to hold off.)