Jocelynn Drake's Blog: Announcements, page 21

Release Day for Unbreakable Stories: Lucas

It's finally here! It's release day for the Unbreakable Stories: Lucas collection!

Okay, so the wait hasn't been that long since we announced it back in early May, but Rinda and I are incredibly excited to finally get these new stories in the hands of readers.

I’ll admit that this collection all started because of our Unbreakable Readers (our Facebook Group). In the free short story Rinda and I released after Shiver called “Te Iubesc,” Lucas invited Andrei’s parents to Thanksgiving at Ian’s with the rest of the gang. When those words were typed, we didn’t give it a second thought.

But readers jumped on that invitation and started asking for the Thanksgiving story.

Trust me, if Rinda and I lived in the same city, she would have seen my blank expression. Thanksgiving story? Really? Should we write one?

Of course, once the seed was planted in both our brains, we started coming up with all kinds of twisted events and silliness that could potentially happen when you get the entire gang together under one roof. And once we got started, we knew this couldn’t be just a quick little story. No… this needed chapters and plotting.

In fact, it was starting to get too long to simply read online. We wanted readers to be able to comfortably read it on their e-readers.

And then there was the fact that Rinda and I had secretly written two short stories that we’d never released. We weren’t quite sure what to do with them.

So… the collection was born. We packaged the Thanksgiving novelette with the two brand new short stories. And since we were putting this together, we decided to include the free short stories (with a few new tweaks) as well so that readers will have all the short stories in one place.

What do you need to know?

Unbreakable Stories: Lucas is approximately 33,000 words long. (Essentially, a lazy afternoon read). It has 5 short stories and 1 novelette.  The stories are arranged in chronological order and happen after the events of Shiver but before the events of Shatter .

Will there be a collection for Snow?

We don’t know yet. There will be a total of three free short stories, just like we had for Lucas and Andrei. You can find all the free short stories here. If readers like this collection, we will consider creating one for Snow after we finish Torch, Book 3 of the Unbreakable Bonds Series.

If you haven't bought your copy of Unbreakable Stories: Lucas yet, you can get it for your Kindle here.

Sale on Summer Reading

Happy Summer!

It’s finally here. The sunshine, the cookouts, vacations, and … hopefully… some lounging about and reading some excellent books.

Living in South Florida, I’m in the land of the eternal s ummer, except that right now the weather is ridiculously hot, and I tend to lose a sense of time and seasons here. But now that I’m staying indoors all the time now to keep from melting in the heat, I’ve got a little time to catch up on my reading.

And if you’re looking for something new to read, today is a fantastic day to pick up some news books.

First, All Romance Ebooks is having a massive sale, where a ton of books are on sale – marked down 25% or more in some cases.

Click here to see the entire list of books that are on sale.

This book sale does include the Unbreakable Bonds books that are currently available. You can get ebooks of Shiver and Shatter for $3.74 each (down from $4.99). This is a great time to start reading because tomorrow Unbreakable Stories: Lucas — a collection of short stories —will be released. (You can pre-order the collection here.)

In addition, Shiver and Shatter are on sale on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, and Apple’s iBooks.  (I’m still waiting on Barnes & Noble to update their site but it’s supposed to be on sale there as well.)

And if vampires are more your thing at the moment…

Don’t forget that Stefan , the first book of the Lost Nights series will be out at the end of July. (You can pre-order your copy here.)

Stefan is a spin-off from the Dark Days series — my m/f urban fantasy series about vampires and other dark creatures.

If you haven’t had the chance to try the Dark Days series, now is a good time to pick up the books. You can get the ebook of Nightwalker (book 1 of the series) for only $2.99 and Dayhunter (book 2) for only $3.99.

Happy reading this summer!

A Fixer Named Rowe

Last week, I talked about how Lucas is my spirit animal and Andrei is my balm. (Click here if you didn’t catch that article)

This week I thought I’d visit with Rowe since the man is currently my entire life. We were cruel to Rowe in Shatter . I won’t say exactly how if you’ve haven’t read Shatter yet. (But really… you need to jump on that book so you can catch up on him and Snow.) Sometimes these things happen. Life is cruel at times.

But what happened to Rowe in Shatter isn't what I wanted to talk about today.

I wanted to chat about Rowe, the man, before the events of the Unbreakable Bonds series and well as what he means to me.

Rowe isn’t exactly a slice of me the same way Lucas is. When I see Rowe in my mind with his smirky little grin and devilment twinkling in his eyes … I see my brothers. I see their sense of humor and their great capacity for love and joy. With Rowe, I have my brothers’ compassion and kindness and sense of justice.

If there is a piece of me in Rowe, it’s his need to fix things. Where Lucas jumps in and takes control before things have a chance to go off the rails, Rowe is the type who must jump in and fix things once they’ve gone to hell.  He’s a hands-on, get down in the dirt type of guy.

He’s also a “shortest distance to the goal” type of guy. When he sees his target, he goes straight after it, which means that he’s willing to use somewhat illegal means to get the job done. He hates red tape, paperwork, and hoops. (All of which drives some of the people who work for him insane.) He’s careful to make sure that the innocent aren’t harmed, but he hates to get bogged down in what he’d call bureaucratic nonsense.

What Rowe needs is someone who will slow him down, force him to think about his actions before he jumps in. Make him take the legal route rather than the fastest. Or at the very least, consider it.

That’s not what Rowe’s going to get.

He’s getting an enabler. And God help the world. I’m not sure we’re all going to survive it, but at least it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

In case you haven’t heard, Rowe is the main character of the third book, Torch. (You can get some of the details here.) We haven’t announced a release date yet, but that will be coming soon along with a pre-order link.

But if you are interested in keeping up with all things Unbreakable Bonds, you can:

Join our Facebook Group to get all the details early as well as discuss the series.

Check out this page to catch all the free short stories and series details.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for news.

Who the Heck is Stefan?

Do you remember Stefan? I’m not sure too many readers do.

Actually, I’ve picked up quite a few new readers through the series I’m writing with Rinda Elliott called Unbreakable Bonds. (It’s a m/m romantic suspense series and it’s a lot of fun!) You may not have heard of my m/f urban fantasy Dark Days series.

And you may have read my Dark Days series many years ago (yep, Nightwalker was first released in 2008 and the last book, Burn the Night, was released on June 28, 2011 – awww 5-year anniversary!), and you’re still left scratching your head.

Stefan wasn’t one of the major players within the series. The nightwalker… wasn’t always very nice. He first appear in Dawnbreaker (book 3) and to me, he always represented who Mira could have turned into if it hadn’t been for the people in her very long life.

He made a second, larger appearance in Wait for Dusk (book 5) and we finally found a way into his heart, making him a somewhat more sympathetic character while Mira, Danaus, Stefan, and Valerio were running around Budapest.

Even when I finished the series, my mind never completely left Mira’s world. Mira and Danaus were happily settled. Well, as happily they could be concerning the state of the world. But I was never really happy with where I left things in regards to Nicolai and even Valerio. I thought a Knox book might even be fun. I tried several times to write Nicolai’s book, but the werewolf never settled right in my head.

And then in waltzed Stefan.

Stiff, proper, and stuffy — Stefan epitomized all the seriousness and grouchiness that was the old nightwalker. So it was only natural that I fell in love with Erin when he tries to feed on her and she laughs in his face.

Yep. She LAUGHED.  In his face.

I fell in love with her and through her, I fell in love with Stefan.

It’s funny how things work sometimes.

Since we have less than two months until the release of Stefan, I thought it would be a good time to talk a walk down memory lane.

If you would like to meet Stefan before the release of the book, you can dive into the Dark Days series, where he first appeared. You can find the reading order here.

And during the next several weeks, I’ll be posting some old short stories, interviews, and snippets — both from the Dark Days series and Stefan .

Stefan will be available on July 29. You can pre-order your copy here.

Lucas is My Spirit Animal

I didn’t mean to fall in love.  I’ve fallen in love before and when it all comes tumbling down, the pain is indescribable.

When I wrote my first series — the Dark Days series — I fell in love with Mira and Danaus. They so effortlessly channeled my darker side. They let me be angry and violent and passionate without all the fallout that comes with that stuff in real life.

But like all series… it had to end. It hurt to walk away from Mira and Danaus, even though they got their HEA. They were family. Old friends. A part of my soul.

Gage and the gang of the Asylum Tales, I figured out how to be a part of that series without it encompassing my soul. But still… I fell in love with Gage. He was a brother, similar to the two I already had but with his own quirks and eccentricities.

When I jumped into Unbreakable Bonds, I thought I’d be good. I thought I had a handle on it.

I was wrong.

Lucas is my spirit animal.

Or maybe I should say… Lucas is me. (Which makes for some interesting conversations considering the number of readers who’ve called Lucas an ass, but that’s okay. He is an ass at times.)

Lucas needs to protect. This needs was born out of his friendship with Snow. Snow was the first person Lucas truly connected with and he saw Snow’s pain. He loves Snow as a brother and he needs to protect him from all attacks.

For Lucas, the need to protect manifests itself through control. He is purely a Type A personality. He’s the Alpha. He is the one to walk into a situation and immediately take control. If he can wrangle the chaos and take charge, then he feels he can protect those around him.

But to do all that, it means that he at times has to be blunt, forceful, and overconfident. He walks in, immediately willing to be the villain so his friends don’t have to play that role.

Well… I’m not naturally a Type A or an alpha and I don’t like to take control, but I’ve found myself in more and more situations where I’ve become Lucas. I don’t like being Lucas, but I’m getting pretty darn good at it. And at the end of the day… Lucas ended up being Lucas as my way of dealing with that reality. I think those cracks even show for Lucas when he’s with Andrei.

Andrei is my balm.

Where Lucas is a ship cutting swiftly through the waves, Andrei is a duck bobbing easily on the surface. Andrei is smart and easy going. He has learned to roll with the punches (no pun intended) and think fast on his feet to deal with a situation as it develops. He’s better at accepting that life is fluid and he has to adapt to the moment to survive.

He understands when to step back and let his lover run. And, more importantly, he knows exactly when to get in Lucas’s face and rein the man in. Neither is easy, but Andrei certainly makes it look that way.

There’s a reason that I say MINE anytime Rinda puts up an Andrei picture on our Facebook Group (and it’s not just because he’s so sexy). Lucas is who I am. But Andrei is who I wish I could be.

If you’ve not gotten enough of Lucas and Andrei, don’t forget that we’re releasing a collection of short stories on June 21. To pre-order your copy of Unbreakable Stories: Lucas, click here.

And be sure to pop in next week. I think I’ll visit with Rowe.

Stefan is Waiting - New Book!

I wrote this book more than a year ago…

Actually, I think it’s closer to two or three years now. In truth, I never planned to write it. When it came to the idea of revisiting the world of the Dark Days series, Stefan wasn’t even a blip on the screen. I wanted to visit with Valerio and definitely Nicolai. Hell, I wouldn’t mind spending time with Knox.

Stefan…

Stefan was an ass. He was arrogant and condescending and annoying and very nearly evil.

But then Erin strolled into my head and it was like getting blasted upside the head with a dictionary.

I really had no choice. I had to write the book.

But I wasn’t just going to jump back into the Dark Days series. Those books are done. Mira and Danaus got their HEA — well as much as you could give two characters in an urban fantasy.

So… sitting back at my desk, I thought, would it be such a bad idea to give some other characters an HEA (happily ever after)?

No. No, it wouldn’t.

First thing you need to know. Stefan – Book 1 of The Lost Nights Series — is not an urban fantasy. I would technically label it a paranormal romance. Yes, it has my trademarked violence. But the story focuses on the exploits of one couple. Their story is a stand-alone book. Book 2 of the series will not be about Stefan and Erin, but someone else.

What’s the book about then?

Kidnapping. Betrayal. Murder.

That’s an average night for most vampires.

But it’s a harsh wake-up call for artist Erin Prescott during her recent trip to Venice, Italy. The world has changed since humanity discovered the existence of vampires, and not for the better.

It was just supposed to be one night. What could be the harm in helping out Stefan — the vampire with a smile that could stop her heart?
But that one night twisted into something far more sinister and deadly.

Framed for murder and trapped in the center of a plot to take down one of the most powerful vampires in all the world, Erin is fighting not only for her own right to exist, but also to save Stefan.

To save him… she has to be willing to lose him.

Stefan is set to take place between five and seven years after the close of the Dark Days series.

The book will be out July 29, 2016. You can pre-order it now for Kindle.

Don't worry. I'll have links for Nook, Kobo, and others as they start appearing on the other vendors.

My Latest Reading List

Did you have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend? I was lucky and had three days to essentially do nothing. I wasn’t on an insane deadline where I owe 10 people 20 different things. I didn’t have made errands to run or other insanity.  I could spend this weekend just relaxing. (I haven’t had one of those in a while and I’m sorely out of relaxing practice.)

So what did I do?

I read books. I haven’t allowed myself to read anything new in a while. I’m a binge reader. In other words, I prefer to read a book in a single sitting. I don’t have the willpower to pick up a book, read a couple chapters, and then walk away. Nope. Hate doing that. If I’m going to read a book, I want to sink deep into its cool, murky depths and get lost with the characters for HOURS on end. (Thank goodness I managed to marry someone who understands that about me.)

This past weekend I read:

Test Drive by Riley Hart

Yeah, sometimes it’s good to know people and be an author so you can swap books. I got my sticky fingers on this book a few days early and it was awesome. Test Drive is part of the Crossroads series. And I simply fell in love with the first book (I seriously love me some Bryce and Nick.) I’ve been happy to follow the series and Test Drive is the third installment. And it is just as awesome as the others. This book dealt with some difficult issues and I think that Riley handled it beautifully, balancing the dark with the light, and sadness with the humor.

Test Drive can be read as a stand-alone, but many characters from the other two books appear in Test Drive. In short, you know you’re going to get a much fuller reading experience if you pick up Crossroads and Shifting Gears as well.

(On Goodreads, this was a 5 Star for me.)

 

On Solid Ground by Melissa Collins

I’ll admit that I have a weakness for Bookbub. I love that wonderful daily email that lists some great ebooks deals in some of my favorite genres. As a result, I’ve picked up soooooo many new books to try. The problem is (other than my steadily shrinking bank account) is that I know have over 70 new, unread books on my Kindle. When I go searching for a new book to read, I can’t remember why I picked up a book or what the book description was.

When I started On Solid Ground, it was a bit of a leap of faith. I had no idea what I was getting into. But I’m so glad I tried it. On Solid Ground is about a solider back from war, dealing with PTSD as well as trying to figure out who he is and what he wants out of life. Then he meets a sexy tattoo artist, who has his own dark and heavy backstory.

And … oh yum. There was sexiness and drama and action and heartbreak that left you wanting to shake them both. Such a good book and I see that it’s part of a series, so I will be back for the next one.

(On Goodreads, this was a 4 Star for me.)

 

Broken by Nicola Haken

First, I love the cover. Much congrats to the artist. It is a beautiful cover.

This is one of those rare books that I had to put down and circle back around to. Not because it’s a poorly written book. No, it’s a brilliant book. However, it is an incredibly heavy subject matter and I needed to be mentally prepared to jump down that rabbit hole.

And even knowing what I was getting into… I wasn’t ready. It’s a love story. A boy meets boy story. Unfortunately, one of those boys is bipolar. The author was spot on. The accuracy was stunning as it was painful. She deftly handled the topic from both the point of view of the sufferer and the outsider trying to help.

The book was heavy and painful and gripping and beautiful. I’m glad that I read it. There’s so much more that I’d like to say about this book, but … I think that’s something for another day.

Read it. Particularly if someone you know suffers from a mental illness. Broken can be eye-opening.

(On Goodreads, this was a 5 Star for me.)

As you can see, three very heavy reads for me. I’m fighting through the aftershocks now and looking for something light and fluffy to buoy me. That means I’ve been leaning heavily on my dealer (aka Rinda) for something happy to read.  I’ll also take suggestions here.

Happy reading!

We've Got a Winner - News About Torch

Well... that went faster than I had expected. In case you missed it, last week I posted a contest asking readers to tell me who they thought Torch, book 3, was going to center on as well as what hint Rinda and I have left behind in Shiver and Shatter to tell readers that.

On Sunday, we had a lovely reader post a comment on my Goodreads blog that had the answer that I was looking for.

(drum roll)

Congrats Claudia! You are our contest winner!

Claudia's answer was:

"I would go with Rowe as well. We had in Shiver some insight to Snow - which was a clue that Shatter will be about him, I think. And in Shatter, we got to see some of Rowe's perspective.

As he showed some interest in men in Shiver, and we have seen some page time with Geoffrey (who I really like), I think, he will be the perfect match.

And as we have seen a lot about Ian and our favorite Cop, I would guess that their book is the last one and the big showdown!"

Being the sneaky authors that we are, Rinda and I planned to leave a trail of breadcrumbs from the first day. Each book contained the points of view of the two romantic interests plus the point of view of the character who was the center of the next book.

Shiver had 3 rotating points of view: Lucas, Andrei... and Snow.

Shatter had 3 rotating points of view: Snow, Jude... and Rowe.

Torch will have 3 rotating points of view: Rowe, XXX ... and Ian.

What? You thought I was going give away the name of the third character. The character who has caught our troubled Rowe's eye. (Mwahahaha! As I'm sure you're learning, I'm the evil one of this team. No doubt Rinda is going to ban me from all blogging and social media very soon.)

Nope, I'm not going to give it away just yet. However, I will say that it's not Geoffrey. (But don't worry. Rinda and I love Geoffrey and we promise that we'll take care of our sweet, handsy boy eventually. One thing at a time...)

So, it's official. Torch is going to be Rowe's book.

This is the moment where I tell everyone who is worried about Rowe's heart and state of mind after the events of Shatter to take a deep breath. We know you're heart sick over Rowe and that you're anxious to learn more about Ian and a certain nosy detective.

Trust us.

We've got this. We're going to take good care of Rowe. We're going to give you a new glimpse of Lucas and Andrei. We'll check in to see how Snow and Jude are doing. And we'll keep Ian busy as well.

But don't worry. Trust us.

We'll have more news regarding Torch this summer. We just received the cover for Torch and we can't wait to share it as well as a description of the book. We're still aiming for a fall release, but we'll work hard to make it as soon as possible.

In the meantime, make sure you've pre-ordered your copy of Unbreakable Stories: Lucas . It contains two brand new short stories, a novellette, and naughtier versions of the previously released short stories for Lucas and Andrei. The six-story collection will be out June 21.

You can also join our Facebook group, Unbreakable Readers, to discuss the series as well as get early sneak peeks.

For all the details on the Unbreakable Bonds series, please click here.

Thanks for reading. And... trust us. It's going to be a fun ride.

It’s Time to Talk About Torch

Shatter has skipped among readers for nearly a month now and it has been largely embraced by readers. (Which is not surprising because you just have to love Snow and you have to love Jude.)

And at the end of Shatter , we included the name of book 3 along with an estimated release schedule:

Torch

Coming in Fall 2016

But there was no snippet. No sneak peek to see whose book is coming next and what dangers await this person.

We didn’t do this to be cruel.

We didn’t do this because we didn’t know what was coming next.

We actually had a good chunk of the next book written when Shatter came out. But the text was rough and raw. It wasn’t what I’d call “reader ready.”

But in this day of Internet and social media, when there is silence, others will race to fill the void. And if something is said often enough, it soon moves from speculation to fact without any basis in reality. Some reviewers and readers have speculated on whose book is next.

Rinda and I have NEVER said anywhere whose book is coming up next.

However…

(And this is where you imagine Rinda and I with big Cheshire Cat grins)

However….

We have left a trail for readers to follow. We have left a pretty significant clue for you to ponder and point you in the right direction.

In fact, we started leaving clues back in Shiver as to who gets the next book. We left another clue in Shatter .

Have you figured it out?

Let’s make a game out of it.

In this blog post, leave a message telling me A. Who is the main character of Torch AND B. What’s your logic.  I want to see if you pick up on our clues. This way you can’t win just because you guess A correctly. You gotta get both parts right.

The first person to get it right will win signed copies of both Shiver and Shatter , and …

Rinda and I will officially announce details of Torch, including whose book it is.

Remember the rules! Your entry must be posted to the blog. Comments on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or email won’t count. You must also answer both A and B.

Also, if you’d like to discuss your thoughts and see the speculation of other readers, be sure to join our Facebook Group, Unbreakable Readers.

And if you haven’t caught it yet, you can read the first free short story for Snow and Jude, called House Hunting With Anna.

Big News: We've Got a New Release Date

It might be a little hard to believe, but even after Rinda and I finish a book in the Unbreakable Bonds series, it's a little hard to walk away from the characters. Even after the danger has faded and the characters have found someone to risk their hearts on, you want to stay with them, hear their little stories.  And we've got to admit that we've had some fun short stories dancing through our heads.

We would like to share these fun tales with readers so we've decided to pull together a collection of short stories. The collection will be titled:

Unbreakable Stories: Lucas

As you may have guessed from this title, the stories in this collection will focus on Lucas and Andrei. The stories will all be set between the events of book 1, Shiver, and book 2, Shatter.

The collection will have at least six short stories. It will include special Author's Editions of the previously released free short stories. (And don't worry, the original versions of the free short stories will continue to be available here.) The collection will also include at least 3 brand new, never-seen-before short stories. Maybe more... We haven't decided yet all the components of the book. At a minimum, the book will be approximately 30,000 words. In other words, a lazy afternoon read.

While the short stories will focus on Lucas and Andrei, all the guys from the series will make an appearance within the collection. And if readers enjoy this collection, we will consider continuing and putting out a collection for Snow and Jude after the release of Torch, book 3.

To pre-order your copy of Unbreakable Stories: Lucas , click here. It will be available on Amazon Kindle on Tuesday, June 21.

And stay tuned for more goodness such as...

The first free short story featuring Snow and Jude will be released in May.

We will also have more details regarding Torch, the third book of the Unbreakable Bonds series in June.