Larissa Ione's Blog, page 4

Lethal Rider Cover and Contest!

Squee! I'm thrilled to show off my new cover!

I also have the blurb, but I'm not going to post it until after Immortal Rider releases because it's SUPER spoiler-y. If you see it lurking around the internet, avert your gaze!

Also, over at As The Pages Turn, there's an EXCLUSIVE excerpt of Immortal Rider, as well as a contest to win Eternal Rider, Immortal Rider, and a book thong! (Be warned though, the blurb for Lethal Rider is up on the site, so be sure to scroll past that when you see the Lethal Rider cover!)

Huge Stephissa Event!

Hi everyone!

The awesome Ing Cruz is having a big event at her blog that you don't want to miss! Here's what she has to say:

Join me at my blog www.asthepagesturn.blogspot.com from Nov. 7th thru Nov 12th to celebrate the books of Stephanie Tyler, Larissa Ione and their alter-ego Sydney Croft.

There will be a fun interview with Steph and Larissa, guest post from fellow friends and bloggers about why they love these books and tons of books will be given away along with some fun swags. There will be a winner EVERYDAY during this event.

Just leave a thoughtful comment each day and twitter, blog or facebook about this event and let me know about it and your chances to win will greatly improve!

Prizes:

Win the complete ACRO series by Sydney Croft

Win the complete Shadow Force series to date by Stephanie Tyler

Win the complete Hard to Hold Trilogy by Stephanie Tyler

Win the complete Demonica series by Larissa Ione

Win Eternal Rider and Immortal Rider (Lord of Deliverance series) by Larissa Ione

*

Today's post is about Stephanie's Shadow Force series, and you'll have a chance to win all four books or swag! Hop on over!

Lots of Great News!

Wow…I can't believe it's November already! This year has flown by. I'm SO not ready for the holidays! Though I have to say that I'm looking forward to two things this Thanksgiving — one, the Klingon Christmas Carol play, which I'll be appearing in for a guest role on the 27th, and the release of Immortal Rider on the 22nd!

Ooh, and here's a neat thing — Immortal Rider is a Christmas story! No, really. Okay, maybe not exactly, but it does take place in December, and there's mention of Christmas and candy canes.

So it's a Christmas story.

Anyway, I've gotten a couple of awesome reviews for Immortal Rider already, and this one, from Publishers Weekly, had me giddy:

Ione's second Lords of Deliverance paranormal (after Eternal Rider) provides a thrilling ride for readers. Limos, Satan's betrothed and daughter of the biblical Lilith, will become a horseman of the apocalypse if, like her brother Reseph (now known as Pestilence), her seal is found and broken. At the engagement party for Limos's brother Ares, Arik Wagner, a soldier for the U.S. army's R-X paranormal unit, steals a kiss from Limos and is dragged down to hell, where he's tortured until Limos helps rescue him. Their burgeoning relationship and attempts to end Pestilence's apocalyptic threat are impeded by the lingering effects of Arik's torture and personal demons, Limos's shame over long-held secrets and lies, and the fight against the forces arrayed against humanity. A secondary plot involving Limos's brother Thanatos adds more character torment while setting up the next installment. Ione balances all the angst with plenty of action, sexual tension, and dark humor.

Woot!

Also, Eternal Rider was nominated as one of the Goodreads Choice picks for best romance of the year! The best part of it is not only am I up there with some HUGELY talented authors, but I'm there because of the readers. It was YOUR reviews that got all of the books nominated, so thank you!!!!

To vote, click on the link below:

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2011 Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Best Romance

Vote now for your favorite books!

And if you haven't signed up for my newsletter, now is the time to do it. I'm going to be doing a fun giveaway with Lara Adrian later this month, and you don't want to miss it!

Have a great week, and thanks again!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Courtesy of Danielle West, who is clearly a talented pumpkin carver!

Catching Up

Ack — I didn't realize it's been a MONTH since I've blogged! Hexe, our new King Shepherd puppy, has taken up a LOT of time, and I've also been insanely busy with revisions and pre-release stuff for Immortal Rider. We're down to less than a month until Limos and Arik hit the shelves! Woo hoo! VERY excited for this book. I know Eternal Rider was a little hard to get into for a lot of readers, but now that the set-up has been laid out in that book, the others start off faster and with a bang!

Puppy has settled in well! She's so damned smart, though we do have a few things we have to work through. She HATES to be brushed. So we're slowly using positive reinforcement to make it less horrible for her. She's also obsessed with the cat, and over two weeks later, we're still trying to get those two to play nice.

Our biggest challenge is socialization. She loves other dogs, but she's extremely reserved around people, so I'm taking her downtown today to walk around and hopefully get used to being a little more social and teach her that it's not necessary to bark at people when she's on a leash.

Other than those things, though, she's been wonderful! She's a happy, lovable, playful pup, and yay, she's housetrained! She had two accidents, but once I taught her to ring a bell on the door with her paw, she figured out how to tell us she wants to go out.

In other news, Amazon finally fixed Immortal Rider's Kindle edition release date, so it's back to November 22nd, just like the print book! I'll also have a cover to show you for Lethal Rider very soon. Unfortunately, I can't post the blurb until Immortal Rider releases, because it's a HUGE spoiler!

Also, today I'm over at the Pop Culture Divas blog, talking about staying positive while writing. Not surprisingly (for those who know me,) it includes champagne!

Preparing For The New Addition

Well, after several years of not having a dog, we're getting a one! We put it off for a long time because we moved so frequently with the Coast Guard, and it was hard moving with a dog — trying to find decent rentals isn't easy, especially not when the dog is a large breed. Much easier with a cat.

But now that we're in Wisconsin in our own home and we have no more moves with the military, we're taking the plunge!

Here's our girl — she'll be six months old when I pick her up in two weeks. She's a King Shepherd, a new breed that was developed using German Shepherds, Alaskan Malamutes, and Great Pyrenees dogs. So she'll be BIG. At five months she's already 60 lbs.

Her name is Hexe (pronounced Hex-uh,) which is German for witch. Perfect, since hubby wanted a German name, and given what I write, it fits!

Now, mind you, I'm a HUGE advocate of adopting shelter pets and rescues, and most of my pets have been exactly that. In fact, my cat is a rescue. But this dog breed, being so rare, isn't easy to find as a rescue, and we wanted a puppy…easier for the cat to adjust. Also, since the breed is so large, we wanted a puppy that our son could handle to establish a pack order where our son isn't on the bottom. So this slightly older puppy needed a home, and she came along at the perfect time. Now I just need to drum up the patience to wait!

So anyway, spending the day ordering puppy supplies! Yay! I want my puppy NOW!!!

Immortal Rider News!

Okay, I'm excited beyond belief to announce this:

For quite a while now, I've tried to explain why my ebook versions of my books released on the first of the month, while the print version released earlier (usually,) on the Tuesday before the first. It's a long story, but it all had to do with internal contracts and legalities, and crap that was taking forever to get ironed out. But my publisher assured me that they were working on it. Trust me, it was frustrating for them too, because they WANT to sell ebooks.

Well, guess what?

Immortal Rider comes out on November 22nd. The print book AND the ebook!

I am SO excited! Like, jumping around the house, screaming at the top of my lungs, excited.

I want to thank all my awesome readers for their patience and understanding. You guys rock!!!!!

Contest Winners!

First, I want to thank everyone who participated in the widget contest! You guys are awesome! The best promo for an author is when people spread the word about books, and I can't thank you enough for sharing the widget and sharing the contest around the web.

So I'm posting the winners (I chose 6 instead of 5,) but if you didn't win, don't worry…more contests coming up. I've got some book thongs to give away, and also some really cool vampire fang necklaces like the one you see to the right. –>

People who saw mine at Authors After Dark loved it, so I bought some extras for giveaways. Yay! Stay tuned for the contests!

For now, the winners, chosen by Random.org, are:

Jamie, comment #14

Kathy Webb, #19

Christina #33

Shannon Patel #55

Lisa Uranker #114

Megan #117

Ladies, if you'll email your mailing address to: larissaione AT gmail DOT com or use the contact form to do it, I'll get your prizes out to you!

Thanks again for playing, everyone!!

New Short Story Available!

So…you've been asking, and I finally did it! I wrote a snippet of Demonica life for Luc and Kar, from Sin Undone!

The latest installment of Demonica: Overkill is now available. Just click here to get to the page!

Also, thanks to everyone who bought Supernatural over the last couple of weeks! I've been hearing awesome things from readers about it, and because of you, we hit the USA Today bestseller list. Thank you!!!!

I seriously have the best readers. I appreciate every purchase, every review, every word spoken to spread the word about my books. You guys rock…hard!!!!

Hugs!!!!

New Widget, New Contest!

Yay! Check it out, I have a new Immortal Rider countdown widget, courtesy of my awesome publisher! You can see it on the sidebar to the right –> and if you click on the little button to the far right on the widget, you can read the article I wrote for the Hachette website, Of Angels and Demons, about the Four Horsemen. Or, you know, you can click here.

So you know what this means? It means a giveaway!!!!

To celebrate Immortal Rider's upcoming release, I'm going to give away some Immortal Rider themed swag!

Five winners will get tote bags and coconut lip balms that match Immortal Rider's cover (bright orange and purple — the pic makes them look pink, but they're not. BRIGHT orange!) Plus, I'll toss various swaggy stuff like Post-It notes and jar openers into the packages.

So, how to enter?

To win one of three tote packages, simply post the widget somewhere — your blog, Facebook page, wherever you can do it. One entry for each posting…come back and give me the link to the page where you posted the widget in the comments.

If you don't have a blog or Facebook page or just don't want to post the widget, you're still eligible to win one of two of the tote packages! All you have to do is tell me which of the Four Horsemen most appeal to you. If you haven't read Eternal Rider and don't know about any of them, you can learn about each in the Of Angels and Demons article here.

Good luck! Contest is open internationally and ends on Sunday. Be sure to check back to see if you're a winner!