Christine Rains's Blog, page 66

Winners of the 500 Followers SpecFic Giveaway

Thank you to all my wonderful followers and to everyone who helped promote this giveaway. This has been the biggest Rafflecopter giveaway I've ever hosted. I wish you could all win!

Congratulations to the winners!
I'll be contacting you shortly.

Have a great weekend, folks!

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Wicked Wednesday - wicked PNR quotes

I've noticed lately that my Wicked Wednesdays have lacked some wickedness. Since I'm busy with revisions at the moment, I thought I could have some fun by sharing with you some hilariously wicked quotes from my favorite paranormal romance authors. Enjoy!

“Why don't I just give you a pair of my panties to hang around your neck? Then whenever you feel jealous, you can wave them at whoever's pissing you off.”- Jeaniene Frost

"“Don't get pissy with me, leech." With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. "Even tapped out, I can still do a love spell to make you fall in love--with the sun.” " - Kresley Cole

"Stupid werewolf ninja sperm." - Molly Harper

"He looked like a sexy ninja. Or a tiger ready to pounce on his prey. She just looked like she was sitting sideways on an invisible toilet. Curse the male species for making danger look so good!" - Leia Shaw

"Which meant I got left with Quinn yet again. Given the time he was taking to make his decision, I wasn't exactly happy about that. I mean, putting me with him was like flashing chocolate my way then telling me I couldn't have it. It was just plain mean." - Keri Arthur

"It was like being leaned on by a very heavy, warm brick. A sexy brick." - Patricia Briggs

"One thing I've learned about vampires--they keep pulling new rabbits out of their cloaks. Big, fanged, carnivorous bunnies that'll eat your eyeballs if you're not paying attention." - Laurell K. Hamilton

"I don't suffer from my insanity -- I enjoy every minute of it." - Sherrilyn Kenyon

"Barrons was powerful, broodingly good-looking, insanely wealthy, frighteningly intelligent, and had exquisite taste, not to mention a hard body that emitted some kind of constant low-level charge. Bottom line: He was the stuff of heroes.
And psychotic killers." - Karen Marie Moning

What are your favorite PNR quotes?

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There's still 2 days left to enter my HUGE Speculative Fiction Giveaway!Enter to win a grand prize pack of books from 14 amazing authors.

Model Position blog tour - review

Blurb: For Sienna, love and art are perilous games. Is she ready to take that gamble?Sienna is a beautiful, talented artist poised on the precipice of soaring into the glamorous, yet cutthroat Manhattan art scene.Dave Hightower is a hooked-up, handsome heir to the hippest gallery in NYC, Gallery Hightower.
Dare Sienna throw away her chances of hitting it big to follow her heart?My review:Sienna is a beautiful art grad student who knows exactly where she wants to go in life. Her life is ordered, and she even has the connections to get a show at a top Manhattan gallery. Yet all the order she strives for is swept away when she sets her eyes upon the class' newest model. Erik is a modern day Adonis and has his eyes set upon Sienna. He makes her feel a heat no other man before has inspired. Will Sienna keep her focus on her life plan or follow her heart into Erik's arms?

This NA romance will take your breath away. It's short, but it packs a lot of sizzle and fire. Sienna is smart and sweet. I found it easy to relate to her. She has great focus, and I love her inner conflict with it turns to chaos upon meeting the gorgeous Erik. As for Erik, I do love a man with a sensitive artistic side and a hot body! The tension between Sienna and Erik had me fanning myself. It was tastefully written but not lacking the heat a good romance needs.

Can't wait to read more from Kitsy Clare in the future!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
When Kitsy Clare isn’t creating stories on her favorite Mac Air, she teaches speculative fiction and creative writing workshops. She also loves to draw, travel, read spicy romance, sci-fi and all kinds of thrillers. She divides her time between New York City and her studio in the Catskills, where she enjoys the sounds of birds, bullfrogs and the random coyote. 
Kitsy Clare is the pen name for her new adult romance. She also writes young adult fiction using her real name, Catherine Stine. Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One won finalist spots in both YA and Science Fiction in the 2013 USA Book News International Book Awards. It was also granted an Indie Reader Approved notable stamp. Her YA Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book. Ruby’s Fire, the new companion novel to Fireseed One, is receiving high praise from reviewers. She’s a member of SFWA, SCBWI and CBIG. She can be found on www.catherinestine.com, www.catherinestine.blogspot.com, and https://twitter.com/crossoverwriter

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14 fantastic writers donated books to this HUGE Speculative Fiction Giveaway!Enter to win a grand prize pack that includes books from each writer.

Escalation Blog Tour - guest post by Stephen Tremp

SUPERNOVAS
Few words in the English language can evoke the WOW! Factor quite like Supernova. There have been bands, songs, and comic book superheroes named after this type of exploding star.

Supernovae occur at the end of a star's life when its furnace runs out of fuel. Because gravity then overcomes the star's ability to remain puffed up, there is a violent collapse, followed by an explosion that produces radioactive elements such as nickel and cobalt. Most of the light we see from a supernova is emitted as those radioactive elements decay, so the brightness falls sharply over a period of weeks.

Incidentally, all the iron in your blood came from the decay of radioactive nickel manufactured in a stellar explosion. So most of the atoms in your body were once in the interiors of stars. ReferenceIn January 2014, a Type 1a Supernova in Messier 82, otherwise known as the Cigar Galaxy which is about 12 million light years from the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) was discovered by students at the University College London. Some scientists call this a potential Holy Grail as it may give valuable insight into Dark Energy (more on this in a future post). It is positioned between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. This rare cosmic event would be visible through a telescope any amateur stargazer could buy at a store.

We see this light 11.4 million years after the explosion happened, because of the time light takes to reach our galaxy. So it was a really special time in M82 11.4 million years ago. Reference

Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this interval a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun is expected to emit over its entire life span. Reference: Reference

A star can go supernova in one of two ways:
Type I supernova: star accumulates matter from a nearby neighbor until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites.
Type II supernova: star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity Reference: Reference

Did You Know: A supernova occurs in our Milky Way Galaxy about twice every hundred years. This may seem to be a rare occurence. But since there are about 30-40 million spiral galaxies in the universe, this translates to a supernova happening somewhere about once every two seconds.

Supernova Fun Facts:
1. Some supernovas become black holes.
2. When a star explodes, it shoots out billions of atoms into space, where they form a huge cloud of dust called a nebula.
3. Most of the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, and iron that we have on Earth originally came from a supernova explosion.
4. In 1054 AD, astronomers in China and the Islamic Empire recorded a supernova (they noticed a star so bright you could see it in the daylight). That supernova is now the Crab Nebula.
5. If a supernova is one light year away, you will have one year to prepare for your eminent doom.
6. Even though one day our sun will die, it is not large enough to go all supernova on us. It will simply expand into a Red Giant and consume the Earth. So you can go to sleep in peace knowing you are safe from dying from our sun going supernova on you. Reference



Stephen Tremp is the author of the Breakthrough series. Together, Breakthrough, Opening, and Escalation follow the lives of the unlikely participants from innocence to a coming of age through sacrifice, betrayal, passion, lust, unconditional love, and hope. Escalation will appeal to fans of modern-day science fiction, paranormal, action, horror, and even romance.

Stop by Stephen’s Blog for more information on the Breakthrough series.

To download Escalation: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan CLICK HERE.

If you think this post is worthy, please give it a Tweet or a Facebook share.

For those who know there is far more beyond our four dimensional continuum than our five senses can perceive.

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Don't forget my HUGE Speculative Fiction Giveaway celebrating 500 followers. You could win a grand prize pack of books donated by 14 amazing authors!

Friday Five for March 14th, 2014

1. I had my first short story acceptance of the year. Yay! My fantasy tale, "Summoning Fire" will be published on Aurora Wolf next month. There's magic, zombies, and a little bit of romance. Not with the zombies! Yuck.

2. Today I'll find out if I won BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Award in fantasy for THE HARBINGER. I'm honored just to be nominated. Winning would be very nice too. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

3. I haven't had any time for revisions this week. One thing or another has popped up. Taxes are done, though. And I had to declare my earnings from my writing for the first time in my life. I'm a little bit excited about it.

4. It's my son's spring break next week. I'll lose a lot of my writing time, but I have a few fun things planned. When he goes back, he'll start an after school literacy program that will be on Wednesdays. I'm eager to see how much he improves. He's gotten stubborn about reading with me, but he's very good with the teachers at his school.

5. Don't forget to enter my HUGE Speculative Fiction Giveaway celebrating my reaching 500 followers. You could win a grand prize pack of books from 14 amazing authors.

Have a great weekend!

Wicked Wednesday - know your tropes

If you're querying agents and publishers, they will tell you that they need to know the tropes of your story right away. The tropes need to be in the blurb, and they need to be clear in the first chapter of the novel. Many articles will tell you that you need clearly stated tropes to get readers to read your stories.

For a little bit, I growled and glared at tropes. I would not be tied down by these rules! No one can tell me to use certain stereotypes or devices. I write what I want to write.

I rebelled until I realized I was already using tropes. Tons of them.

What is a trope? It's a literary motif or cliché. For example, boy falls in love with girl next door or good girl takes on bad boy and changes his ways as he falls for her.

Every story you read will have tropes. You just have to learn to recognize them, which really isn't that difficult at all. The tricky part is putting a new twist on popular tropes. That's what's going to sell your story.

What are your favorite tropes? And what are your favorite twists to them?

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Don't my HUGE Speculative Fiction Giveaway!Enter to win books from 14 awesome authors.

Teaser Tuesday with Dark Witch

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!I managed to snag this new book from Nora Roberts off the express shelf at the library last week. The start didn't grab me right away, but it's starting to sound more promising. This is the first book in a paranormal romance series. Sometimes the characters are talking in such a thick Irish accent in my head, I can't catch every word!


Here's your teaser:
She let go, released her spirit and left her body by the cabin in the deep green woods.
And as the fog swirled, something shifted in the black ashes. (page 36)


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Please vote for my book, THE HARBINGER in BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Awards. The Greek gods would greatly appreciate it... by not sending a dangerous thunderstorm your way.

HUGE 500 Follower SpecFic Giveaway

(Background photo called "Leap" from Rolffimage free at Dreamstime.com)
About a month ago, I had the surprise and pleasure of being Blog Blitzed, and I reached over 500 followers on my blog! Never would I have thought this possible when I started blogging years ago. The blogging community has become a wonderful and positive part of my life. I'm grateful for each and every one of you.
To thank you, I wanted to give you a grand giveaway. And while I hope winning a copy of my book would be fantastic, I wanted to do more. Lucky for me I'm part of an incredible group of writers called Untethered Realms. I asked if anyone would like to donate to the giveaway, and wow, they did so generously donate. Then, the cherry on the sundae, more of my writer friends offered to donate books. The more the merrier! Writers are awesome.
One lucky winner will win a HUGE prize package.(And yes, this giveaway is open internationally!)
A signed print copy of The 13th Floor Complete Collection by me
Diamonds and Dust (ebook) by River Fairchild
An ebook of your choice from Mary Pax
Ocean of Dust (ebook) by Graeme Ing
Ruby's Fire (ebook) by Catherine Stine
Passing Time and Taking Time (ebooks) by Ellie Garratt
The Vanished Knight (ebook) by Misha Gerrick
Givin' Up The Ghost and A Guilty Ghost Surprised (ebooks) by Gwen Gardner
Neverlove and They All Fall Down (ebooks) by Angela Brown
Polar Night and The Ghosts of Aquinnah (ebooks) by Julie Flanders
An eARC of Reborn by Cherie Reich

Cloaked in Fur (ebook) by T.F. Walsh

The K-Pro (ebook) by M. Pepper Langlinais 

AND

The Second Sign and The Second Shadow (ebooks) by Elizabeth Arroyo
3 second place winners will win a digital copy of The 13th Floor Complete Collection, 13th Floor series swag,and a thank you card mailed to you from me.

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Please go vote for THE HARBINGER in the Fantasy category at BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Awards.
 

Dragonfly Warrior on sale now!

DRAGONFLY WARRIOR is on sale for 99 cents for all of March!Don't miss out on this incredible steampunk adventure.
Buy it here:Amazon * B&N * Smashwords
Blurb:The Mechanica Wars: Savage Machines Are Afoot... 
At the age of twenty, Kanze Zenjiro's bloody footprints mark the bodies of those who stood in his way to protect the throne of Nihon. Now, the tyrannical Iberian Empire is bent on destroying his kingdom, and they send their steam-powered giants and iron spiders against him. 
Zen embarks on a quest that takes him on the most dangerous journey of his life. To succeed, Zen must live up to his nickname, the Dragonfly Warrior, and kill all his enemies with only a sword and a pair of six-guns. He is called upon to somehow survive a test of faith and loyalty in a world so cruel and merciless, it borders on madness.
* * * * * Please remember to vote for THE HARBINGER (Vol. 4 of The 13th Floor series) in BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Awards.

Friday Reminders

The voting for BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Awards continues. My book, THE HARBINGER (Vol. 4 in the 13th Floor series) was nominated in the Fantasy category. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could vote for it. PLUS, voting enters you in a giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
If you haven't heard already, Smashwords is having a huge sale this week. You can already download THE MARQUIS (Vol. 1 in The 13th Floor series) for free, but for this week only, you can get THE ALPHA (Vol. 2) free too! Use coupon code REW25. Plus, I'm offering The 13th Floor Complete Collection for 75% off! Use coupon code REW75. And last, but certainly not least, I have my 500 Followers Giveaway set to go live on March 10th. 500 is a big number. So the grand prize winner will get a BIG prize pack with books from 14 amazing authors! So come back on Monday and celebrate with me.