Cate Masters's Blog, page 40

Cursed blog tour has begun! So has school. :)

The Cursed blog tour kicked off on Monday! Unfortunately my Internet wouldn't allow me to visit Book Reviews because it said the connection was unsafe. With a new computer, I couldn't risk it. :(

Today, the tour continues at Snarky Mom Reads  Thanks to Snarky Mom for taking the time to review Cursed! I hope you'll pop over and visit.

It's been a busy month already! The Story Structure Safari class I signed up for began on Sunday. Classes are two or three times a week, with plenty of material. And assignments! While I can't share any of the actual class work, the instructor named some resources you might find helpful as well.

Martha Alderson wrote a Plot Whisperer book, plus has a YouTube channel and a blog. If I ever get spare time, I'll organize my blog links better to keep writing blogs together.

I hope you had a wonderful and safe Labor Day holiday! I spent mine studying and completing seven interviews and a few blog posts. Only nine more to go... yikes, I'd better get busy!

Oh, before I go... I have to share this wonderful review of Cinderella Dreams from BTSE Magazine! I couldn't get my cursor to grab the text so my wonderful publisher did the next best thing - a screen shot!

Cursed book tour! And freebie this week

September's going to be busy! Cursed starts a 23-stop tour - tomorrow! Thanks to Liz at CBLS for putting this together:


Sept 2: Book Reviews (Guest Post)
Sept 4: Snarky Mom Reads (Review)
Sept 6: JM Stewart--Contemporary Romance Author (Author Interview) 
Sept 8: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess (Guest Post/Review)
Sept 9: Cu's eBook Giveaways
Sept 9: Indy Book Fairy(Guest Post/Review)
Sept 11: Rose & Beps Blog
Sept 12: Bunny's Book Reviews (Author Interview)
Sept 13: Dalene's Book Reviews (Author Interview)
Sept 14: Wicked Readings by Tawania (Review)
Sept 15: Musings And Ramblings (Author Interview)
 Sept 16: Kristy Centeno
Sept 17: For the Love of Bookends (Review)
Sept 17: Musings of a Writing Reader (Guest Post)
Sept 18: MsRomanticReads (Guest Post)
Sept 19: Danita Minnis (Author Interview) 
Sept 19: Rambling Reads (Guest Post)
Sept 20: Harlie's Books (Author Interview) 
Sept 21: Aspired Writer (Guest Post/Review)
Sept 21: Crystal's Many Reviews (Guest Post/Review)
Sept 21: Dawn's Reading Nook (Author Interview) 
Sept 22: Lusty Penguin Reviews (Guest Post)
Sept 22: Samantha Holt

I'm grateful to all the hosts! Especially those that agreed to review Cursed.

The banner ad at the top right of the blog will take you to this schedule at any time. :)


Labor Day Sale!


This week, you can download an ebook of my literary novel, Orion Rising, for free from Smashwords. Just enter the coupon code  AV28G at checkout.
 

And please please leave a review on either Smashwords or Amazon when you can. Thank you and happy reading!

Casting Call: Charmed

This Casting Call is a followup to the one for Cursed. Bruno and Melina, the main characters, continue, of course, but Charmed goes deeper into some of the secondary characters. It's a great cast!

Bruno. Shedding his chimera curse, he's slowly transforming into a man. An irresistibly handsome man. :)

Still, he has secrets. It may be a good thing his treatments keep him unconscious a good bit of the time because he has a strong compulsion to reveal them to Melina.

Goran Visnjic is Bruno.





Melina Weaver has given up everything for Bruno. Career gone, her life revolves around him. Unfortunately for her, he isn't the greatest company (unconscious much of the time, as noted above). Which leaves her curious mind craving stimulation. She finds plenty in Bruno's library. But it likewise creates another problem, and more secrets between them.

Amanda Seyfried is Melina.

You meet Bruno's longtime friend, Marco Roagna, in much more detail in Charmed.

Long ago, Marco joined the Council because of its easy access to women. Now, he's grown tired of the shallow life and wants something more meaningful. He's likewise grown tired of the Council, and its outdated dictatorship. Which, as you might suspect, puts him in an awkward - and precarious - position.

Richard Armitage is Marco (I'm sure he can manage the Italian accent!)

Fiorella Battaglino is fairly new to the Council. She's somewhat of a mystery because she says little, but sees all.

Marco's intrigued by her, but isn't sure of her loyalties. He finds out in Claimed, the third book. :)

Rachel Weisz is Fiorella.


There's more to Luca Petulengro than meets the eye. A powerful gypsy warlock, he has longtime ties to Bruno as well. The Romanian gypsies want to break free of the Council, and Luca's joined with other rogue magicks.

Gerard Butler is Luca.





Another rogue magick, Fiona, is a bit of a loose cannon. You never know when she'll explode in anger - or shift into a wolf. Or a raven.

She was a lot of fun to write. :)

Olivia Wilde is Fiona.


Fiona was still not as fun to write as Bean Sidhe. Bean's a banshee with an attitude. And a sarcastic wit, which she never hesitates to use whenever appropriate.

Bean is instrumental in organizing the rogue magicks against the Council.

I am a huge fan of Helen Mirren's. She is so multifaceted as an actor, I'm sure she'd make an amazing Bean.



And that's my dream cast! You can imagine your own, if you like. Buy Charmed!



Decadent Publishing:http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=832&osCsid=hdmana51khc0lq5rr15a5sl3i5 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Charmed-The-Vitruvian-Man-ebook/dp/B00EUI54FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377729192&sr=1-1&keywords=Cate+Masters%2C+Charmed
Barnes and Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/charmed-cate-masters/1116792028?ean=2940148482079
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-charmed-1271532-149.html
Coffee Time Romance: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/pubs_product_book_info/decadent-publishing-c-93/charmed-p-10829

Serendipity anyone?

Does serendipity ever strike when you're writing? It does for me - come learn how at The Book Lunatic! (Don't you love that title?)

Get Charmed!

Look what appeared on Amazon last night! :)

I'm so excited for the release of Charmed! It's the followup to Cursed, with Claimed soon to follow.

As it's released on other sites, I'll update the official page, below. The blurb and excerpt are there, if you care to read them, plus the book video for your enjoyment. :)

And now, it's time for the release day happy dance!

Charmed, dark paranormal/fantasy

Charmed
The Vitruvian Man 2
Dark Paranormal/fantasy




BlurbBrought together by accident, bound by fate—and magic.  Love works its charm over Bruno DiCesare and Melina Weaver during his transformation from beast to man. But love likewise blinds them to the secrets each holds. Bruno thinks his secret will devastate Melina. Melina’s afraid Bruno will hate her for what she’s become. Neither guess the greatest danger lurks outside their door – and will force them to decide between love and life itself.

Available at
Decadent Publishing (soon)

Amazon 


http://www.amazon.com/Charmed-The-Vitruvian-Man-ebook/dp/B00EUI54FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377729192&sr=1-1&keywords=Cate+Masters%2C+Charmed
Barnes and Noble (soon)
ARe: (soon)
Coffee Time Romance: (soon)




Reviews (coming soon)

Casting Call (coming soon)


ExcerptWow, so fast. Melina held Bruno’s hand until his grasp went slack. The treatment seemed to take effect almost as soon as he’d swallowed it. He shouldn’t react immediately; his body should be able to handle it better by this time. Unless Eldie increased the dosage?Suspicion drew her gaze to the bottle. Of course she couldn’t tell by sight, and she had no idea what ingredients the sorceress had used in the other preparations. She shouldn’t have agreed to it so readily, nor trusted Eldie so blindly. In any other situation, she’d have asked to review the complete specifications.She stroked Bruno’s arm. I wanted him cured for me as much as for himself. If her selfishness harmed him in any way, she’d carry that guilt forever. Try to make it up to him forever.For now, she’d have to occupy her mind with something else or drive herself insane. His deep breaths meant he’d sleep for at least a day.A hushed sigh sounded from the other room.“Eldie?” Back so soon?No answer came except for a slight rustle. She crept to the curtain. “Who’s here?”Even as she asked, she sensed a presence unlike any she’d encountered before. Everything remained as she’d left it, the lamp glowing in the center of the table, laptop beside the scattered books. Lucky the sorceress hadn’t seen them. Luck, or something more.She returned to the volume she’d left open. A page rippled, lifted straight up and fell over. Another muffled sigh escaped. Melina. The whisper so slight, it was barely audible. Yet without a doubt, she heard her name.She traced a finger down the spine. It quivered beneath her touch like the plucked string of a guitar. With a gasp, she jerked her hand back.Uncertain she hadn’t imagined it, she repeated the move and got the same result.How? She pulled the chair close to the table and examined the pages. Nothing out of the ordinary, except perhaps how finely executed the handwritten entries appeared, each letter as perfect as the last. Almost like they’d been printed to fool the eye of a curious reader. An Italian reader. If only these were in English.The longer she studied the text, the clearer it became. The letters blurred, shimmered, then shifted, rearranging themselves into… English. She didn’t need to enter the words into the translator site on her laptop, she understood every sentence.She ran her fingers lightly over the page. The letters shifted again, scattering at her touch, as if she’d disturbed the surface of a pond.“What the…” It changed back to Italian, the letters appearing to float. She swirled a fingertip across the surface, and the words formed a swarm, like a school of fish following bait. Like fish, they seemed to nibble at the tip of her finger. Impossible, but it tickled.Fascinating. But this silliness got her nowhere. She’d never learn anything if this kept up. “Stop.”The scripted words froze in a jumbled, nonsensical order.She hovered her hand above the passage, and the letters stretched up off the page in tall columns to meet it. The pull of the connection reached inside her skin, as if it had been magnetized.This is crazy. But obviously it’s not. It’s happening. It’s real.

Watch for Claimed, The Vitruvian Man 3, coming soon!

Do you have a favorite genre?

Or do you just love a great story? Do you like authors to stick to only one genre?

Come share your thoughts at the Daily Dose of Decadence blog, where we're chatting about the subject!

More cover love!

Thanks to Eva LeFoy for sharing the cover for Charmed - coming out this week! Woot! :)

And this morning, I just received the cover package for the third in the Vitruvian Man series, Claimed. It's another gorgeous cover I can't wait to share!

The Fangirl's Dream is here!

Congrats to Fierce Dolan on the release of The Fangirl's Dream. Wow, what a great cover, huh? Another fantastic looking 1NS story to add to the TBR list...





The Fangirl’s Dream by Fierce Dolan

Siler Dunham would do anything to have Farraj Reza, hero of the smash network TV drama, Endangered. Every week she tunes in to watch him calculate the rescue of fellow bus crash survivors trapped deep in the jungle by a ruthless drug lord. A federal public defender with a penchant for saving the unsavable, she can’t resist his sad story, or his badass charm. When she seeks a matchmaking service to meet him, their one night stand isn't what she expected. Forced to choose between unbridled lust and compassion, Siler must forgo her fantasy... or mustn’t she?








ExcerptHis lashes fluttered, then his eyes widened. The gun didn’t waver. “Who are you? Where did you come from?” “I’m here for you, Farraj, or whatever your name is. I came to meet you. You know—” He pressed the gun into her neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Hawa’a. That’s it right, what I’m supposed to say—some kind of watch word?” Jaw clenched, his cheek twitched and she imagined feeling it under her lips. “Who told you that word?” Balancing on her knees with her arms raised in surrender, she toppled onto her bottom. Grit clung to the back of her legs. Something’s not right. “Madame Eve, the woman who arranged our meeting. She told me to say Hawa’a, first thing.” As much as her restricted movement allowed, she looked around. Tiny beach. Palm trees. Crystal clear water. The cove…. Annoyed, Siler nudged the gun back with her elbow and stood, brushing sand from her bottom and smoothing her wilting skirt. Sweat beaded her brow, and her carefully disheveled tresses cascaded in limp curls over her shoulders. “What is this?” Knuckles bracing her hips, she glared down the lowered barrel. “This is not what I asked for. What the fuck? Is this some kind of joke?” Disappointment rolled in her stomach and tears stung her eyes. I’m such an idiot. “You know what? Let’s just forget this whole ‘one-night’ thing, and I’ll go home.” Palms up, she took a ste
Buy Links
Decadent Publishing: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=826&osCsid=psqichhthet46c5o6vtqokb3c6
Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EOWX2GY/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_Dyrfsb0ZMJ3NA 

About Fierce Erotic mezzofiction writer, Fierce is imagination shapeshifted as a scribe taunting blank pages and carpal tunnel, neither of which are much use for deadlines. Close allies are impeccable timing and a trusty masseuse. Being a switch I/ENFP doesn’t hurt. For kicks Fierce has other personas across several genres, tends to fill in “Other” on surveys without explaining, and chooses the finality of the Japanese Tamagotchi. 
Frolic with Fierce on: ·         Facebook ·         @FierceDolan ·         Google+ ·         Goodreads ·         Amazon ·         Pinterest ·         Tumblr

Book video for Charmed

Wow, what a week! I'm so grateful to all the friends who've helped show my beautiful cover for Charmed to the world. I can't wait for its release next week!

Now that the cover's out there, I can also show you the book video. I hope you like it.





I'm in the middle of edits for the third in the series, Claimed. I'm really looking forward to its release! I'll keep you posted on any news.