Lucienne Diver's Blog: Lucienne Diver's Drivel, page 33

So much

I feel like a lot of my posts are titled “So Much….”  Contrary to exaggerated predictions in 2011 about the death of publishing, 2012 has been probably the busiest year ever, so far!  So, when I find a spare second to update my blog, I feel like I’ve got a ton all stored up.

To start with, I want to give a shout out and congratulation J. Kathleen Cheney on the sale of her wonderful historical fantasy series to Ace.  Based on our announcement:  J. Kathleen Cheney’s OF AMBERGRIS, BLOOD, AND BRANDY, a novel of fantasy, suspense, and romance set in an alternate turn-of-the-century Portugal in which races of shape-shifters live in secret, and a fantastical underwater work of art and a psychopathic killer become tangled in a string of murders that threaten the stability of the entire nation, sold to Kat Sherbo at Ace Books.

And I’ve been remiss offering congratulations on a batch of other great new sales over the past month:

Kira Sinclair’s three novels set in Sweetheart, South Carolina – a small southern town where the men are sinful, the women are feisty and Cupid always wins, to Laura Barth at Harlequin Blaze.

N.K. Jemisin’s three books in a post-apocalyptic epic fantasy, in which a heroine searches for her lost daughter in a world torn apart by seismic magic, to Devi Pillai of Orbit.

Beth Cornelison’s final installment of the Black Ops Rescues series and a new trilogy featuring three Louisiana brothers who take on danger and natural disaster to defend the women they love, to Keyren Gerlach of Silhouette Romantic Suspense.

Carol Berg’s two books in the Sanctuary series, involving fantasy and forensics, to Anne Sowards of Roc.

Steven Harper’s THE HAVOC MACHINE, fourth novel in the steampunk Clockwork Empire series, to Anne Sowards of Roc.

Congratulations to you all!   I’m really looking forward to all of these forthcoming releases!

Also, you know that saying about how you can’t please all of the people all of the time?  Well, on Magical Words, which I guest blog for regularly, AJ Hartley did a wonderful post a few days ago on Dealing with Negativity.  It’s something we all encounter, and it can be so damaging to your psyche and reputation, but I think his post helps put it into perspective.

In other news, Chloe Neill is giving away two ARCs of BITING COLD, the latest novel in her New York Times bestselling Chicagoland Vampires series here on her blog.  Contest ends at midnight on May 21st, so enter soon for a chance to win!

Kalayna Price is also running a great ARC giveaway for the latest in her USA Today bestselling Alex Craft series.  This one closes a day earlier, so you’ll want to check it out right away!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s acclaimed novel THE BRO-MAGNET is currently free(!) on Kindle, so get it while it’s hot!

Where am I this time?

Well, today I’m over at Magical Words, talking about literary cheerleaders and what they mean to me.

Come Friday I’ll be off to the DFW Writers Conference.  I look forward to seeing some of you there.  Hope you’ll give me a shout out!

Great news to share

So much great news to share today!

First, a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Vicky Dreiling for winning the Holt Medallion for Best Historical and receiving an Award of Merit for Best First Book for HOW TO MARRY A DUKE!

Also, another congrats for David Mack, who won the Unreality SF “Story of the Year” Award for his Star Trek tie-in RISE LIKE LIONS!  It came up today, because he shared a pic of his very beauteous trophy via Twitter, etc.

Next, for those of you in the UK, check out bestselling author Rachel Caine’s extensive tour schedule.  There’s almost sure to be a signing near you!

If you’d rather stick closer to home, you can check out Anton Strout’s new Once & Future Podcast with Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of many Supernatural, Star Trek and original novels, including DRAGON PRECINCT, UNICORN PRECINCT and GOBLIN PRECINCT.

Finally, A.L. Davroe was kind enough to host me for Feature Friday over on her blog, talking about my BAD BLOOD heroine Tori Karacis and her wild and wooly world.  We’re giving away two signed copies of BAD BLOOD, and there’s not too much time left to enter.  I hope you’ll check it out!

 

Why I Do What I Do

I get the question in interviews all the time, “How do you do it all?”  They’re talking about agenting, authoring, mothering, wifing…okay, I made up that last word.  The real question is, “How would I stop?”  Here are the hard truths:

-Any day I don’t write feels wasted.  It doesn’t matter what else I do that day, if I didn’t make progress on my writing, life feels meaningless.  Seriously.  I can’t not write, for the sake of my own sanity.  It’s not about how hard it is to make time, it’s about how impossible I’d be to live with if I didn’t.

-I’m a Type A personality and an extreme workaholic.  Any day I find myself with extra time I feel like I didn’t plan carefully enough.  I don’t feel relieved that I can take a break, I feel like there’s something I should be doing that I’m not and it stresses me out.  Luckily, I’ve always got as much work as I can handle, sometimes more.

-My husband and son are a) very understanding, b) frequently off at Boy Scouting events, giving me guilt-free time to work and c) creative types themselves.  My son is a huge reader, so often he cuddles up to me and reads when I do, which makes it family time as well as “work.”  My husband is a kick.  He provides inspiration and sometimes even guest blogs about why you should buy his wife’s book.

-I’m a book addict.  I’d be reading non-stop even if I weren’t repping authors and writing myself, so my off-hours really aren’t so different as an agent than they would be as a layperson, except for the critiquing.

I’ve had to learn to take time for myself every once in a while so that I don’t burn out.  This does =not= come naturally to me.  So I do things like get a monthly subscription for massages and pre-schedule appointments, because if I had to call to set them up, I’d never decide I had the time.  I make promises to my husband and son, as in, “I’ll only work up to noon on the weekends and not past nine o’clock on weeknights.”  (Yeah, this is my schedule.)  I plan vacations and getaways, where I step away from my computer.  The latter doesn’t happen often, but when it does…whew!

All in all, as crazed as my life can be, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  (Although I’m still waiting on my version of Batman’s Alfred to bring me espresso drinks and meals when I need them so that I don’t have to pause what I’m doing to feed the body.  Chicken Soup for the Agent’s Soul?)

___________________

If you’d like to support my writing habit (and, as you might guess, I’d totally love that), I hope you’ll check out my Vamped series from Flux or my Latter-Day Olympians series from Samhain.

TRUST IN ME by Beth Cornelison

I’m very excited today to present Beth Cornelison, author of many wonderful books for Silhouette Romantic Suspense, HEALING LUKE from Sourcebooks Casablanca, REYN’S REDEMPTION and UNDER FIRE from Samhain, and TRUST IN ME, a small town romance perfect for bathtub or weekend reading and, best of all, FREE for the next few days for the Kindle.  Here’s Beth to talk about the book in her own words.  Enjoy!

Setting the Scene for TRUST IN ME

Thank you, Lucienne, for the opportunity to set the scene of my small town contemporary romance, TRUST IN ME. First a story, then I’ll tell you how you can get TRUST IN ME for FREE!

The summer after I finished sixth grade, my family moved from Missouri to Augusta, Georgia. One of the benefits of this move was that we were now four hours away from my grandmother, who lived in Asheville, North Carolina, instead of sixteen hours. My mom took advantage of the chance to visit her aging mother as often as possible, meaning my sisters and I also made the trip. I loved the opportunity to visit with my grandmother, but just as I have cherished memories of the time at my grandmother’s house, I remember well the drive through rural South Carolina to reach Asheville.

In particular, I remember driving through Clinton, South Carolina, a picturesque small town and home of Presbyterian College. Clinton became my model of small town life and beauty when story ideas and characters for TRUST IN ME started whispering in my mind.

The tall ancient oaks lined the streets with branches that ached over the road to create a shady tunnel of greenery. The old homes, both large and small, harkened to a bygone age. The railroad tracks we bumped over at the center of town and small businesses that lined the main street— barber shops, hardware stores and drug stores— were reminders of the days before superstores and malls ruled the retail landscape. Home owners’ well-tended lawns blossomed in summertime with a rainbow of flowers and blooming shrubs. I can remember rolling down my window just to catch a whiff of the floral scents that perfumed the air.

In a residential area of Clinton, we’d pass the lovely campus of Presbyterian College with its stately Georgian style brick buildings and shady quads, and I began forming ideas of the sort of college campus I wanted to call home when I graduated high school.

Not far from town, along the country highways that crisscrossed the state, peach orchards and vegetable gardens yielded crops that were sold in the numerous roadside stands. I have never eaten a sweeter, more delicious peach than the ones grown in western South Carolina.  Large pastures with cows idly grazing, farm houses and mobile homes with dogs sleeping in the sun added to the slow-paced, nostalgic feeling of this beautiful small town.

Time passed, and I married and moved away from Georgia. My grandmother grew ill and needed to be placed in a nursing home closer to my mom, and I was no longer making that trip from Georgia to North Carolina via Clinton, South Carolina. Yet when I started writing TRUST IN ME, Clinton was burned in my brain as the idyllic setting for my small town romance.

My hero, Kevin, worked in a family owned hardware store like the ones that lined Clinton’s main street. Heroine Claire dreamed of attending Harrison University, based on Presbyterian College, and she rented a room from an elderly lady who lived in one of the old homes with a bounty of sweet smelling flowers and dogwood trees blooming in the yard. Kevin lived in one of the mobile homes outside the town limits and even had a stray mutt who adopted him. I also had the owner of one of those roadside peach stands came to shop at Lowery’s Hardware.

Although I changed the name of the town so that I could take some creative license, the inspiration for my small town of Grayson came from those summertime trips up and down the highways between Georgia and North Carolina, and my fond memories of Clinton, South Carolina.

Would you like to visit Grayson? Now is the perfect time, because this weekend (May 3-7) TRUST IN ME is available free on Kindle! (You can get it here.)

Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit Interview with Jessi Kirby

I’m pleased today to host Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit sister Jessi Kirby, talking about plotting and her new and very timely book IN HONOR.  I hope you’ll enjoy and that you’ll give Jessi a shout out to let her know you’re here.

IN HONOR by Jessi Kirby
Reading level: Ages 14 and up
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (May 8, 2012)
 ISBN-13: 978-1442416970
 

About the Book:

Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn’s celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her.

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn’s last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn. . . and ruggedly good looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn–but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

Early Reviews:

“A beautiful, engaging journey with heart, humor, and just a pinch of Texas sass. Hands down my favorite contemporary of the year.” –Sarah Ockler, bestselling author of Twenty Boy Summer, Fixing Delilah, and Bittersweet

“An amazing novel about first kisses, last goodbyes, and what it means to finally let go. I absolutely loved it.” –Lauren Barnholdt, author of Two Way Street

Interview:

What is your writing process like? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you schedule time to write each day or are you a spree writer?

If you were to take a peek in my office, you’d see, from the elaborate, color-coded index cards pinned to the massive corkboard, I am most definitely a plotter.  I like a map, and an idea of where I’m going when I write.  But that doesn’t mean I’m married to my outline.  It’s an evolving thing as I go along, and I do love when the story takes me places I don’t expect.

Along the same lines, I’m a very scheduled writer as I have two kids and a day job.

What is the hardest part about the publishing process for you and how do you get through it? (For me, it’s copyediting and sour cream and onion chips.)

The hardest part for me is definitely drafting.  I haven’t yet figured out how to turn off that inner editor, even a little bit, so it’s a very slow process for me-one that requires copious amounts of caffeine, chocolate, and potato chips.

We drop your hero or heroine on a deserted island. Quick, what are the three things he or she can’t live without?

Honor would have to have Rusty, the Impala, and her favorite Kyra Kelley album.

If your story were a film, who would you cast?

Ooh, that’s tough! For Honor it would be someone with a little sass. Maybe Elle Fanning?  As for Rusty, I’m not sure.  Someone rugged and hot.

Are there any contests or upcoming appearances/interviews/etc. you’d like to plug? 

Yes! I’m going on my first book tour with Jenny Han and Morgan Matson this month!  It’s called the Summer Lovin’ Tour, and we’ll be appearing in SoCal and the San Francisco Area.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Congratulations on your fabulous new release!

Book birthdays!

Posting tomorrow’s book birthdays today!  (In reverse order from my last week’s “yay, they’re coming!” sort of post.)

BAD BLOOD by Lucienne Diver (Samhain), Latter-Day Olympians, Book 1

Tori Karacis’s family line may trace back to a drunken liaison between the god Pan and one of the immortal gorgons. Or…maybe it’s just coincidence that her glance can, literally, stop men in their tracks. While her fear of heights kept her out of the family aerobatic troupe, her extreme nosiness fits right in with her uncle’s P.I. business.

Except he’s disappeared on an Odyssean journey to find himself. Muddling through on her own, she’s reduced to hunting (not stalking, because that would just be weird) brass-bra’d Hollywood agent Circe Holland to deliver a message…only to witness her murder by what looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Suddenly, all of her family’s tall tales seem believable, especially when Apollo—the Apollo, who’s now hiding out among humans as an adult film star—appears in her office, looking to hire her. She knows the drill: canoodling with gods never works out well for humans, but she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Maybe it’s her genes. Maybe not.

Given her conflicted feelings for one hot and hardened cop, it’s a toss-up which will kill her quickest. The danger at her door…or her love life.

THE KILLING MOON by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit), Book 1 of the Dreamblood Duology

The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.

In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.

But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru – the most famous of the city’s Gatherers – must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess’ name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh’s alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

THE IMPOSSIBLE CUBE by Steven Harper (ROC Books), Book 2 of The Clockwork Empire

In an age where fantastic inventions of steam and brass have elevated Britain and China into mighty empires, Alice Michaels faces a future of technological terrors…

Once, Gavin Ennock sailed the skies on airships and enchanted listeners with his fiddle music. Now, the clockwork plague consumes his intellect, enabling him to conceive and construct scientific wonders—while driving him quite mad. Distressed by her beloved’s unfortunate condition, Alice Michaels sought a cure rumored to be inside the Doomsday Vault—and brought the wrath of the British Empire down on them.

Declared enemies of the Crown, Alice and Gavin have little choice but to flee to China in search of a cure. Accompanying them is Dr. Clef, a mad genius driven to find the greatest and most destructive force the world has ever seen: The Impossible Cube. If Dr. Clef gets his hands on it, the entire universe will face extinction.

And Gavin holds the key to its recreation…

THE ROPE DANCER by Roberta Gellis (Sourcebooks Casablanca)

She Bewitches With Her Dance…

Carys’s livelihood depends on her agility, beauty, and balance. She enchants crowds with her exhilarating rope dance, but one wrong move leads to disaster—a twisted ankle and no way to survive. Alone and unprotected in war–torn England, she has no one to trust but a handsome stranger—a man most unlikely to give up his wandering ways.

He Enchants With His Song…

Telor is a man skilled with his hands. A gifted musician who rejects city life to travel the country on his own terms—free of any master. Taking on an injured girl will only slow him down. But Carys’s bold nature and haunted past intrigue him, and he soon discovers that beneath the beautiful exterior is a woman with a passion to rival his own.

With over eight million books in print, award–winning author Roberta Gellis sets the standard for captivating medieval romance filled with passion and pageantry.

BLACK DAWN by Rachel Caine (Berkley JAM), Book 12 of The Morganville Vampires

With its eclectic mix of vampire and human citizens, Morganville, Texas, has always been a risky place to call home. But with the invasion of the vampire’s deadliest enemy, Morganville isn’t just in danger—it’s dying…

Ever since the draug—mysterious creatures that prey on vampires—took over Morganville, the lives of student Claire Danvers and her friends have been thrown into turmoil. Most of the town’s residents have evacuated, but Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael have chosen to stay and fight.

Using the city’s water system to spread, the draug have rapidly multiplied. Things in Morganville look grim, especially since vampire Amelie—the town founder—has been infected by the master draug’s bite.

Now, if Claire and her friends don’t figure out how to cure Amelie and defeat the draug, it looks like Morganville will become little more than a ghost town…

POWERS by James A. Burton (Prime Books)

Albert Johannson lives off the grid. He’s forgotten more than he remembers about his past, but those snippets he’s retained tell him two things: he’s lived a long, looong time and he doesn’t trust anyone, particularly gods. He’s not any too fond of demons either, particularly the one that materializes in his kitchen wanting to hire him for a special mission. It’s as deadly to cross a demon as to deal with him, so Albert reluctantly agrees to investigate, putting him in the path of a prickly arson detective named Melissa el Hajj with trust issues of her own. Clashing at a crime scene, they uncover a broken seal that seems ancient enough to have been forged by Solomon himself. The seal cries out to Albert that he must mend it or something dark and dire will happen. Albert, who has a special affinity for metal, must first discover exactly what that will do to his kind – and he’s only just beginning to understand who and what he really is.

(Check out the interview with James A. Burton on Examiner.com!)

Tomorrow’s book birthdays!

Posting tomorrow’s book birthdays today!  (In reverse order from my last week’s “yay, they’re coming!” sort of post.)

BAD BLOOD by Lucienne Diver (Samhain), Latter-Day Olympians, Book 1

Tori Karacis’s family line may trace back to a drunken liaison between the god Pan and one of the immortal gorgons. Or…maybe it’s just coincidence that her glance can, literally, stop men in their tracks. While her fear of heights kept her out of the family aerobatic troupe, her extreme nosiness fits right in with her uncle’s P.I. business.

Except he’s disappeared on an Odyssean journey to find himself. Muddling through on her own, she’s reduced to hunting (not stalking, because that would just be weird) brass-bra’d Hollywood agent Circe Holland to deliver a message…only to witness her murder by what looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Suddenly, all of her family’s tall tales seem believable, especially when Apollo—the Apollo, who’s now hiding out among humans as an adult film star—appears in her office, looking to hire her. She knows the drill: canoodling with gods never works out well for humans, but she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Maybe it’s her genes. Maybe not.

Given her conflicted feelings for one hot and hardened cop, it’s a toss-up which will kill her quickest. The danger at her door…or her love life.

THE KILLING MOON by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit), Book 1 of the Dreamblood Duology

The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.

In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.

But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru – the most famous of the city’s Gatherers – must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess’ name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh’s alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

THE IMPOSSIBLE CUBE by Steven Harper (ROC Books), Book 2 of The Clockwork Empire

In an age where fantastic inventions of steam and brass have elevated Britain and China into mighty empires, Alice Michaels faces a future of technological terrors…

Once, Gavin Ennock sailed the skies on airships and enchanted listeners with his fiddle music. Now, the clockwork plague consumes his intellect, enabling him to conceive and construct scientific wonders—while driving him quite mad. Distressed by her beloved’s unfortunate condition, Alice Michaels sought a cure rumored to be inside the Doomsday Vault—and brought the wrath of the British Empire down on them.

Declared enemies of the Crown, Alice and Gavin have little choice but to flee to China in search of a cure. Accompanying them is Dr. Clef, a mad genius driven to find the greatest and most destructive force the world has ever seen: The Impossible Cube. If Dr. Clef gets his hands on it, the entire universe will face extinction.

And Gavin holds the key to its recreation…

THE ROPE DANCER by Roberta Gellis (Sourcebooks Casablanca)

She Bewitches With Her Dance…

Carys’s livelihood depends on her agility, beauty, and balance. She enchants crowds with her exhilarating rope dance, but one wrong move leads to disaster—a twisted ankle and no way to survive. Alone and unprotected in war–torn England, she has no one to trust but a handsome stranger—a man most unlikely to give up his wandering ways.

He Enchants With His Song…

Telor is a man skilled with his hands. A gifted musician who rejects city life to travel the country on his own terms—free of any master. Taking on an injured girl will only slow him down. But Carys’s bold nature and haunted past intrigue him, and he soon discovers that beneath the beautiful exterior is a woman with a passion to rival his own.

With over eight million books in print, award–winning author Roberta Gellis sets the standard for captivating medieval romance filled with passion and pageantry.

BLACK DAWN by Rachel Caine (Berkley JAM), Book 12 of The Morganville Vampires

With its eclectic mix of vampire and human citizens, Morganville, Texas, has always been a risky place to call home. But with the invasion of the vampire’s deadliest enemy, Morganville isn’t just in danger—it’s dying…

Ever since the draug—mysterious creatures that prey on vampires—took over Morganville, the lives of student Claire Danvers and her friends have been thrown into turmoil. Most of the town’s residents have evacuated, but Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael have chosen to stay and fight.

Using the city’s water system to spread, the draug have rapidly multiplied. Things in Morganville look grim, especially since vampire Amelie—the town founder—has been infected by the master draug’s bite.

Now, if Claire and her friends don’t figure out how to cure Amelie and defeat the draug, it looks like Morganville will become little more than a ghost town…

POWERS by James A. Burton (Prime Books)

Albert Johannson lives off the grid. He’s forgotten more than he remembers about his past, but those snippets he’s retained tell him two things: he’s lived a long, looong time and he doesn’t trust anyone, particularly gods. He’s not any too fond of demons either, particularly the one that materializes in his kitchen wanting to hire him for a special mission. It’s as deadly to cross a demon as to deal with him, so Albert reluctantly agrees to investigate, putting him in the path of a prickly arson detective named Melissa el Hajj with trust issues of her own. Clashing at a crime scene, they uncover a broken seal that seems ancient enough to have been forged by Solomon himself. The seal cries out to Albert that he must mend it or something dark and dire will happen. Albert, who has a special affinity for metal, must first discover exactly what that will do to his kind – and he’s only just beginning to understand who and what he really is.

(Check out the interview with James A. Burton on Examiner.com!)

Birthdays, book birthdays and tweetables

“Happy Birthday to me, I’m a hundred and three….”  Oh wait, no, no I’m not.  Just feels like that sometimes!  Anyway, I’m taking part of the day to do fun things, like have lunch with the fab Kira Sinclair over in glamorous St. Pete Beach, but before I go, I wanted to leave you with the thought of some really fun books releasing any day now!  (May 1st to be exact.)  I’ve provided some tweetable snippets below, in case anyone out there wants to help spread the word or go forth and pre-order!

POWERS by James A. Burton (Prime Books)

Out 5/1! POWERS by James A. Burton: not your usual hero & heroine, secrets as deadly to remember as forget http://bit.ly/IQSFe5

BLACK DAWN by Rachel Caine (Berkley JAM)

A town run by vampires invaded by the one thing even they’re afraid of…how wld U fare? Black Dawn by @rachelcaine http://bit.ly/IrsQyS

THE ROPE DANCER by Roberta Gellis (Sourcebooks Casablanca)

Beautiful dancer, traveling man, a haunted past & a war-torn country…the makings of epic romance from Roberta Gellis: http://amzn.to/HL4Zhw

THE IMPOSSIBLE CUBE by Steven Harper (ROC Books)

Ragtag teams flees England w/a cure for the Clockwork Plague that will upset empires: The Impossible Cube http://amzn.to/IZrzmp

THE KILLING MOON by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

LJ says THE KILLING MOON by @nkjemisin “shines for its remarkable characters and graceful prose”! See 4 yourself 5/1! http://bit.ly/HMI19m

BAD BLOOD by Lucienne Diver (Samhain)

Gods & gorgons, murder & myth: BAD BLOOD by Lucienne Diver is out 5/1! http://bit.ly/HIEyKg

New and exciting!

Out and about!

A new version of Doranna Durgin’s excellent first mystery starring Sully Beagle (oh, and his person, veterinarian Dale Kinsall) finding murder and menace in the high desert: NOSE FOR TROUBLE.  You can check out an except and more on Doranna Durgin’s website or see what the publisher has to say here in their announcement of  the title’s debut in their new mystery line.

Blurb: Dale Kinsall, DVM, and his young Beagle Sully are brand new to the high desert of the American Southwest. Determined to escape reminders of the catastrophic fire that scarred his memory and damaged his lungs, Dale arrives to a clinic populated by an eccentric staff, even odder clients—and a community all abuzz about a recent murder.

The wagging tongues grow even louder when Dale himself stumbles across a second victim on his very first day at the clinic—a man drowned in his own drought-dusty backyard—and that’s just the beginning. Dale’s new boss is less than pleased that scandal and chaos seem to trot along at Dale’s heels.

Before much longer it becomes evident that Dale, Sully, and the clinic are all at risk, even as Dale’s fledgling relationship with a local colleague turns serious in more ways than one. Trouble seems to be closing in on all of them. But how can Dale solve the mystery when he’s not even sure what the mystery is? And how can he protect everyone and everything he cares about?

There’s only one thing for certain: just like Sully, Dale has a Nose for Trouble.

For the first time anywhere, Janet Mullany’s wonderful historical romance THE MALLORY PHOENIX on Nook and Kindle:

She plays a deadly game, but nothing is as dangerous as love.

Benedict de Malorie, Earl of Trevisan, can never forget the masked woman he met one night at a London pleasure garden. The clever pickpocket stole his heart and his family’s prized jewel – the Malorie Phoenix. But the family treasure reappears in Benedict’s darkest hour, returned by its thief, along with the unexpected gift of his infant daughter.

Believing that she is dying, Jenny Smith leaves her daughter in the custody of the baby’s blueblood father. Seven years later she finds herself in good health and alone, yearning for her only child. To raise enough money to support them both, she takes part in a daring escapade that requires her to impersonate a woman of quality. She fools the ton and Benedict himself.

When Jenny finds herself entangled in a murderous plot against Benedict, the father of her child, her carefully laid plans begin to fall apart. All she wants is her daughter back, but she never thought she’d fall in love with Benedict. Revealing her part in the plot means she will almost certainly lose Benedict and their daughter forever. But continuing to play her role puts them all in terrible danger.

Oh, I know you’ve seen this cover before!  But what’s new and exciting is that Persephone Magazine’s book club is reading N.K. Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS over the weekend of May 5th, so if you haven’t read it yet, now would be a great time.  And if you have, maybe you want to swing by and discuss!

(BTW, her new series begins on May 1st with THE KILLING MOON and continues in June with THE SHADOWED SUN.  I’m so looking forward to these new releases.  Amazing books!)