Kat Parrish's Blog, page 23

#RiteToReign #iBooks--a boxed set for your iDevices

I don't know about you, but doesn't it sometimes feel like if you want to get an ebook you have to go through Amazon? My fellow writers on Rite to Reign feel your pain. That's why we want to offer it to you on iBooks for 99 cents. Preorder now!  You haven't heard of Rite to Reign? Hold on to your crowns and cauldrons..
Power is never given, it has to be taken.In this collection of stories about wicked witches, cruel queens, and powerful princes, you'll find something for every flavor of your paranormal fancy. My own story Secret Hexe, is a tale inspired by the life of Catherine the Great from her childhood apprenticeship in magic (with her French nanny) to her arrival at the Russian court where her soon-to-be husband makes the mistake of thinking she's someone he can manipulate on his own way to power.He is so wrong about that! My story is just one among more than two dozen tales by North America's best-selling writers of paranormal and fantasy romance. This is a limited edition set and ONLY 99 cents. 

The Howl a different kind of werewolf story

Although there are werewolves in my book Misbegotten (an urban fantasy set in Los Angeles), I've never really made a lycan the centerpiece of a book. The Howl was written for a boxed set, and the story was inspired by the premade cover I purchased from the awesome Lou Harper. The story is novelette-length, so just a little bite of a story, but there will be more stories about investigative journalist Simon Arvai who travels the world reporting on crime and conflict.

I did a lot of research for the story, including reading through the case archives of Europol, which has a newsletter you can sign up for. (I highly recommend the newsletter for anyone who writes crime fiction because some of the crimes are really interesting. Who knew that one of the most lucrative scams in Eastern Europe revolved around used tires?)

I already know what Simon's next adventure will be (thanks again Europol) and I have seen the cover I want over at my favorite premade cover source Book Cover Designs.
Right now The Howl is exclusively available on Amazon. You can get it here.

A preview of hell...

It's been smoky in the Pacific Northwest for the last week thanks to more than 300 fires raging out of control in British Columbia. The wind is finally blowing the smoke away but for a while there, the air quality was worse than it is in Beijing, giving everyone dry and red eyes.

It struck me that this might be a good time to share my list of favorite fire-related books. Everyone always points to Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, who also wrote A River Runs Through It, but I prefer Dennis Smith's Report From Engine Company 82, which came out more than 40 years ago, but is still available. If you were a fan of Denis Learay's Rescue Me, you'll see similarities in this book.

John Maclean (son of Norman) has written several books about fires, but his best is probably Fire on the Mountain, about a fire known variously as the South Canyon Fire and the Storm King Mountain Fire. (I'd have gone with Storm King Mountain--so incredibly evocative.) This was a particularly deadly fire in that it killed an entire elite team of 'hot shots" who'd been dropped into the area. The lone survivor of that event has written his own book.

An even deadlier fire, the Granite Mountain Fire near Prescott, AZ claimed 19 firefighters and is the subject of a movie called No Exit, starring Josh Brolin.

Two other memoirs that are gripping:  Bob Donbrowski's 38 Years: A Detroit Firefighter's Memoir  and Nick Brunaciini's B-Shifter.

One for the TBR list

The cover of this book caught my eye.
I'm currently writing a sequel to Magic in the Blood called Santa Muerte, but the saint of the title is a benign, female version of death who grants favors to her followers. this looks like a very different book, but I definitely want to read it. It's available on a bunch of different platforms, but here's the publisher's site.

The debut authors are crushing it lately

Heart of Thorns , described as a fierce feminist fantasy, is the first in a series (of course), about a young woman who lives in a world where only women can possess magic. The author is Bree Barton, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you can win a copy of the book. (It was published last month.)

I like the cover--simple and elegant. I like the concept. Can't wait to dig into this one.

Peng Shepherd's Book of M--a review

In a world where people are suddenly losing their shadows, the lives of a group of unrelated people are bound up in a hope for building a new world on the memory of the old.
This is an epic, apocalyptic quest along the lines of Stephen King’s THE STAND or Robert McCammon’s SWAN SONG, with a large dose of INCEPTION thrown in. It’s also a zombie story of sorts, particularly in scenes where the “shadowless” surround those who are still tethered to their ‘dark twins.” The story unfolds in a somewhat nonlinear fashion where events being recounted by various characters overlap, but there’s a good mix of adventure and intimate contact.

The unraveling of reality is incredibly visual, and no one will much quibble with the premise that memories are stored in our shadows (and not in a certain part of our brains). The writer tells the story from multiple points of view, with both first and third person being used. The author does a very good job of “opening out” the story with flashbacks to “before” and even to multiple events after the Forgetting hits.

Peng Shepherd's debut novel is a multi-faceted apocalyptic quest story told from multiple points of view. She plays with pov in a way that I haven't seen since Kevin Brooks' iBoy, and it's astonishing that this is her first book. 

Coming soon!!!

I am very excited about this upcoming boxed set which features stories about royal witches!! Mine is about a young Catherine the Great using magic to play a real-life Game of Thrones. Stay tuned for more info!  In the meantime, if you have a iDevice or a Nook, you can pre-order. (Amazon pre-order will happen later in the year.)
Here's a link that will take you everywhere.

The Heart of a Devil

I'm always interested in the villains. YYou HAVE to have great villains to have a great tale. My short story "The Ugly One," a tale of a mermaid's revenge, is in this collection. I can't wait to read the other stories. Here's where you can get it.

The Z Sisters

I've been having fun writing different kinds of stories this year and I had a blast writing a "zombie apocalypse" story for Nicole Morgan's Zombie Apocalypse boxed set (on pre-order at Amazon here for 99 cents).  I haven't been given the official go-ahead to share the cover (although it is up at Amazon) but the cover I have for the eventual stand-alone release is here. Images by Neostock, design by Indie Author Services.

Seven Shifter Stories!

The first book in Pure Textuality's Summer of the Supernaturals has landed:  Shifters in the Shadows, curated by Jena Gregoire and Brandy Dorsch. It's a sampler pack of all kinds of shifters--yes, there are werewolves (including my own The Howl), but there are whole worlds of paranormal creatures here--vampires, and witches, and mountain lions and panthers. And dragons. There are also dragons in the story that anchors the collection.

Wicked Desire by Brandy Dorsch (Hunger Mates, Book 2)--The story that leads this collection offers a strong, if conflicted, heroine and a little reverse-harem action with the two sexy werewolves who want her as their mate. Throw in some nice world-building that includes were and vampire protocol, and Wicked Desire is the perfect story to set the mood. Even better, if you love it (and you will), there are other books in the series. Find more of her work here.

One Wounded Wolf  by Nicole Zoltack--Set in Bethlehem, PA (where the author lives), this is a story of a town overrun by all sorts of supernatural creatures, from sirens to djinn, and an immortal werewolf that drinks blood. The narrator muses on the relative strength of vampires versus werewolves and concludes that, "They have fangs and so do we!"  Find more of her work here.

Resistance by Gina Wynn (Ruin, Book 1)--I don't want to play favorites, but this may be my favorite story in the collection. Wynn's evocative prose sketches out a dystopian future inhabited by were panthers and utopian dreams. It's a nice change of pace from the usual were story and I enjoyed it very much. Find more of her work here.

Vanishing by Jena Gregoire (Hellfire World short story)--Gregoire's "Hellfire World" is set in New York city where the paranormal city dwellers hang out in the hottest club in town. If you loved The Devil You Know, you'll enjoy this story. Find more of her work here.

The Howl by Kat Parrish--This novella was a change of pace for me. I set the story in Eastern Europe and even if you don't like it, I hope you appreciate the research I did!  I liked my character well enough that I'm hoping to turn the story into a larger work. Find more of my work here.

Sinful by Liz Galvin--I am in awe of Galvin, who writes in English though her first language is Portuguese. This story's got witches, a hero who's half-demon, half-shifter and has a taste for bdsm, and an intriguing collegiate backdrop that is a lot of fun. The story doesn't take itself too seriously.
Find more of her work here.

Exile: The Silure Dragons by Victoria DeLuis--is the most poetic of the stories, with its missing relic--a stone that allows humans to see dragons--and its descendants of Bran the Blessed. There's some really gorgeous prose here. And dragon shifters! Find more of her work here.

There will be three other "Summer of the Supernaturals" collections publishing soon. More on them soon. But in the meantime, Shifters in the Shadows is just 99 cents!