Thea Harrison's Blog, page 32

Blog Post: Winner of the Elder Races Create a Character Contest

The winner of the contest is Tolouse!

Tolouse’s entry was:

1: Mouse (it could be a nickname)

2: wyr cat, an ordinary housecat

3: 6 years old

4. female

I’m going to have so much fun weaving this little character into the next novella, which is entitled HUNTING SEASON.

Congratulations, Tolouse, and thanks to everybody for playing.  I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Thea

P.S. I’m posting this a little early (not noon) because my schedule function on wordpress is acting glitchy this morning….

 

 

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Blog Post: DEVIL’S GATE cover copy and preorder news

Here is the cover copy for DEVIL’S GATE.  I’ve been told that the info has been uploaded to online vendors today, so the story will be available for pre-order by Amazon tomorrow, and Barnes and Noble and other online vendors that accept pre-orders within the next 5 to 6 days.  Yay for Duncan!

 

Book Title: Devil’s Gate

Series Name: A Story of the Elder Races

Series Number: 3

Author: Thea Harrison

ISBN13: 978-1-61921-222-0

Length: 28,000

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Theme: Shape-shifters

Price: $3.50

Publication Date: 06/05/12

Tagline: When it comes to love between a medusa and a Vampyre, it’s every man, woman, and snake for themselves.

Blurb:

 A Novella of the Elder Races

As a coroner, medusa Seremela Telemar has always felt more comfortable chatting over a dead body than over drinks. But when her wild niece, Vetta, runs off to Devil’s Gate, a lawless town that has sprung up overnight in a modern-day gold rush, she knows she has to extricate her before the rebellious girl gets into real trouble. Though she’s confident in her head snakes’ ability to defend her against attackers, Seremela is still a bit nervous about braving this modern-day Wild West by herself.

Vampyre Duncan Turner is not about to let his new co-worker go into that chaos alone. His Vampyric power and lawyer smarts make him the perfect ally, and the fact that he already had his eye on Seremela for more…personal reasons, doesn’t hurt matters. Any romantic thoughts pull up short, however, when they arrive at Devil’s Gate and learn Vetta is set to hang by morning.

In order to save Vetta and themselves, Seremela and Duncan are going to have to fight fire with force and magic with fangs. And pray they make it out of Devil’s Gate alive.

Warning: Contains mother effin’ snakes in planes, cars, tents, and beds. Luckily, our hot Vampyre hero doesn’t mind them one bit…

 

 

 

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Blog Post: Writer Wednesday winners!

There are five winners of this week’s giveaway with Dan O’Shea:   Merry, Nigel, Peggy, Shannon, and Juliane.  I’ve emailed the winners separately–congratulations, everybody!

My next guest authors on Wednesday May 2nd (yikes, May already!) is the writing dynamic duo, Bree and Donna, who publish under the name Moira Rogers.  They are funny, fun and kind, and I’m looking forward to their post next week.

Happy reading, everybody!

Thea

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Blog Post: A Treadmill Desk–Of a Sort

I’ll confess:  I am a most reluctant DIYer.  My ultimate goal is to make a salary where I can pay someone else to put things together or fix things for me.

I suppose I don’t mind buying a kit of something to put together, although I’m a bit burned out on that with my recent move, but when I walk into Home Depot with nothing more than a few measurements scribbled on a Post-It Note, I run the danger of hyperventilating.

So as you can imagine, I tried everything else first to construct my own treadmill desk but for some reason nothing quite came together for me.  Part of it is my work space, which will change when I move.  Part of it is I’m not prepared to spend $2,500–$4,500 for a premade treadmill desk.

I started out by ordering a Nordic Track treadmill for $599 (along with a warranty, since the belts are awfully expensive).  Then I looked at a Trek Desk for an awfully long time.  The only problem is that my work space is not quite big enough for one.  I still might buy one of those when I live in a place with a bigger office.

Then I looked at IKEA’s height adjustable workstation—but found out they discontinued it a few weeks ago.  Author Courtney Milan suggested a Geek Desk, but they’re expensive with several week’s delay in delivery (it still is an option, just not one I have taken yet).  Another writer friend Dan O’Shea built his own treadmill desk station, but while his idea was ingenious, his solution was again, too big for my work space and… so much work.

Meanwhile my treadmill got delivered and assembled today.  So close, and yet so far away from my treadmill desk!  Desperately I turned to YouTube and watched videos of what other people did.  I did not trust myself to figure out how to fasten a board onto my treadmill safely with bungee cords, so I settled on this guy’s option:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0b75....  He claims it is how to set up a treadmill desk in under 30 minutes for under $25.

Well, as for the first part of his claim, it took much longer for me, but the second half of his claim was true for me.  My Home Depot bill came to $23.95.  But because I avoid Home Depot like the plague, I first had to stop at Office Depot (across the street) to see if THEY had any height adjustable work stations that didn’t take up too much room.  FIY, at this point in time, they don’t.

So I slunk into Home Depot, my scribbled buy list in one hand.  I wandered around and looked pathetic enough until a store employee asked if I needed help.  Oh yes, I did.

They cut a piece of shelf board to fit my length requirement of 43 inches, and the very nice young man helped me get all the other pieces I needed.  Then I came home tonight and managed to bash and screw the thing together.

You can see where I screwed it up and had to redo it in the second photo, but thankfully, it doesn’t matter what it looks like underneath the board.

And I attached it with zip cords, just like the YouTube guy did.

One thing is for sure–this puppy feels secure and it’s not coming off by accident, which is GOOD for the health and safety of my precious laptop and its contents.  I still have my small sit down computer workstation to use when needed.  And I’ve not given up on getting another, more permanent solution… perhaps one of the smaller Geek Desks after all.  But for now I have somewhere to work so I can learn how to type as I walk.

Tomorrow, I begin.

 

 

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Blog Post: Writer Wednesday schedule for the next three months

This morning I received confirmation on the last few guest blog invitations, and here is my Writer Wednesday schedule for the next three months.  I’m quite excited by the line-up, and I hope you will be too.

Today—Guest thriller writer Dan O’Shea

MAY

May 2nd—Guest Moira Rogers

May 9th—Guest Laura Wright

May 16th—Guest crime fiction writer and editor of NEEDLE magazine, Steve Weddle

May 23th—Guest Zoe Archer

May 30th—Guest Julie Rowe

JUNE

June 6th—Guest Eloisa James

June 13th—Guest Susanna Kearsley

June 20th—Guest Carole Mortimer

June 27th—Guest Lauren Dane

JULY

July 4th—Guest Sylvia Day

July 11—Guest Ilona Andrews

July 18th—Guest Carly Phillips

July 25th NO GUEST SCHEDULED FOR THIS WEDNESDAY  **This week I will be at the Romance Writers of America conference in Anaheim, California, as will so many other writers.**

AUGUST–Writer Wednesday takes a break.

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Writer Wednesday: guest author Dan O’Shea and Giveaway!

From Thea:  I’m delighted to have friend and talented thriller writer Dan O’Shea visit for this week’s Writer Wednesday.  Dan and I are “agent siblings,” as we’re both with the Donald Maass Literary Agency, and we both share a love for the classic movie A Lion in Winter.  I switched things up a bit this week by tossing him some interview questions… Thank you, Dan, for coming to visit!

Dan is offering a giveaway this week, and the details follow at the end of his blog post.

~~~

1.  We’ve just met at a bar.  I’m drinking scotch and looking expectant.  Tell me about yourself in a few sentences, and why you write fiction.

You? Expectant? With that girlish figure? Can’t be . . .

Where were we? Oh, that’s right. Me. Helluva a topic, me. This scar on my cheek? (I lean forward so you can get a better look and I can smell your perfume and sneak a peek down your blouse.) *This is where I smack you, but not too hard. *  That’s an actual saber scar from an actual saber. Buy me a drink and I might tell you about it. Hell, buy me enough drinks and I might show you the rest of my scars. I’ve got lots of them. I’m not Jewish, but circumcision, that was still all the rage when I was sired. That does leave a scar, you know. . .

Sorry what? Oh, writing. (I look at you appraisingly, like I’m making a decision.) I could feed you the usual nonsense, the tortured artist crap, carry on about this oppressive compulsion, about how I can’t NOT write, about how the words boil inside me from some sacred font and I am their servant, their humble conduit into the world. But you look like a girl who knows bullshit when you hear it.

The truth is I’ve always had a fairly elastic relationship with the truth, and if that strikes you as a tautology, too bad. Even when I was a kid, people would tell a story and I’d be editing. Somebody’d be carrying on in that tedious way that most people have about something that happened to them, something that was supposed to be interesting, and I’d be thinking “you know, this would be a much better story if . . .”

Curiosity, I guess. And a pretty constant stream of perverse impulses. I read a story in the paper about how some kid set a new record by selling 17,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and bad things happen in my head. Just my nature.

That, and chics dig writers.

2.  You’re a professional thief, and you’re proud of your career.  Which of the following time periods would you want to live in to practice your craft and why?  A: a privateer in the Elizabethan Age, B: a highwayman during the Regency Period, C: a stagecoach robber in the American West, or D: a looter in Genghis Khan’s horde.

Hmmmm . . . I do like me some Elizabethan, wrote a whole novel where I turned Shakespeare into a reluctant gumshoe. But England feels a little claustrophobic if you’re leading a life of crime. Too small, too easy to get cornered, Too likely to end up dangling at Tyburn, so that leaves out A and B.

The west? Plenty of room, for sure. But like I said, I’ve got this curiosity problem. With all the movies, TV shows, the west feels a little familiar, like I’d be living in reruns.

But Genghis Khan’s horde? A horseman in the army that conquered a biggish chunk of the known world and turned it into the largest empire the globe has ever seen? Start out as a kid herding goats in Mongolia and end up at the gates of Vienna making a mess of burghers shit themselves? Yeah, plenty of breathing room and it’s not a story I’ve already heard a hundred times. I could do some damage with that crowd. Besides, I’ve always had a little thing for Asian girls.

3.  Tell us a little about your new publication of short fiction, Old School.  What is your favorite thing about it?

Thea, you’ve got a few zillion books out already, so getting published is probably old hat for you, but just getting published is a pretty big thrill for me, even if it’s just an e-book. Beyond that, I guess if I had to pick one thing I really like about the collection, it’s that I show some range. I mean I’m a crime guy if I have to name a home genre. And Old School does have its share of straight-up crime fiction. But there are a few stories that come a little out of left field. The first two stories, they aren’t really genre stories at all. Then I’ve got a long internal monolog from the Bard, Shakespeare having a dark night of the soul over how he treated a girl. Even got a vampire story that seems to get the ladies a little hot and bothered, but there ain’t nothing sparkly about it. I guess I’m hoping if somebody reads Old School, they’ll feel like I’m a guy they can give a shot, that I’ve got some game and even if something’s a little out of their comfort zone, they might enjoy the ride.

4.  You and your wife have given each other a “free pass” on five celebrities that you can spend the night with, should the opportunity ever arise.  Who are your five celebs?

You say celebs and I guess I think actresses mostly. This whole crop of reality TV freaks we’ve got now? Paris Hilton, these Kardashians? I don’t care what they look like, I find that sort of – I was going to say stupidity, but that’s not accurate. Their fans are stupid, but those “stars” themselves have a uniquely modern and banal cunning that’s allowed them to combine a decent body with an almost sociopathic lack of self respect and turn a complete absence of talent into tremendously lucrative careers. They’ve ridden the sex-tape A-train to the top of the celebrity pile. But, as objectively attractive as they might be, they actually revolt me. If, through some remarkable accident, I found myself in a room with a willing Kim Kardashian, I don’t think I could even get hard, and not just out of fear of disease.

So, actresses. Strange thing is that when I start thinking about actresses, start flitting around my personal fantasy palace using that filter, I’m not thinking of the actresses themselves, but rather of their roles. It’s the whole Ginger versus Mary Ann question that was a de rigueur topic of erotic speculation for any guy my age. Where you came down on that question (and, no, a threesome is not an option, that’s cheating. Or maybe just another question, the answer to which is, of course, hell yes.) But your answer to the classic Ginger or Mary Ann woody test doesn’t really have to do with the actresses themselves – I mean Dawn Wells, Tina Louise, certainly attractive enough ladies in their days, don’t get me wrong – but it comes down to the orientation of your personal fantasies with the vibe of the characters they played. Do you want the worldly and sultry Ginger, who maybe has picked up some erotic monkeyshines in her adventures, who might know a trick or two that’s going to turn your crank in a new and unexpected way? Or do you want the wholesome and probably virginal Mary Ann so you can be her guide to that undiscovered country from whence borne we don’t ever fully return, at least not ever quite the same?

Truth be told, I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.

And, to quote Forest Gump, that’s all I’ve got to say about that. Christ, my daughter’s probably going to read this. She doesn’t need to know whom I’m shtumping in my head.

Although there’s this writer, this Thea Harrison chic . . .  (You rascal!)

5.  Are there other genres that you would like to explore as a writer?  If so, what are they?  Do you have a story sitting in the back of your head, waiting for you to find time to write it?

I’m writing a crime/horror mash up now, which, aside from some flash-length stories, is my first significant departure from the crime genre. I’ve got a rural noir story with a necrophilia angle that’s been rattling around my noggin since a long drunken evening spent with Scott Phillips and company at Bouchercon a couple years back that may or may not ever get written. Fun guy, Scott, but you don’t really want to spend too much time with him.

6.  What would your mascot be if you were a super villain and where would you lair? (Ha! Yes, lair.)

If I were a super villain, I would like to think that I would be so creative and effective in my evil that I would, myself, become the embodiment of villainy and I would not require the avatar of a mascot to strike fear into the hearts of men. My presence alone would make them tremble. Unless, by mascot, you mean, like, a pet or something. Then I suppose I could bring Stacia Decker’s menagerie along for the ride – the Twin Pugs of Horror and the Pit Bull of Death! (Yeah, it’s an in-joke. Sorry. Don’t you hate it when people do that? But I gotta suck up to my agent. It’s not like she’s making any money off me.)

Lair, eh? A lair implies a need to hide. If it’s worth doing, as they say, then do it well. If I turned fully to the dark side, my aim would be to become so feared, so powerful, that I would live in plain, even celebrated view, ensconced in a palace so grand and opulent that, had Coleridge seen it, the world would never have heard of the fabled pleasure dome of Kubla Kahn. I would live in the clear sight of man and in the lapdance of opulent luxury and without fear as none could stand against me. That’s hubris, of course. That ends up going all Pacino, me and my “little friend” making like Custer. But hey, it’s good theater.

Rapid fire:

Favorite movie – Varies by mood, but The Lion in Winter is always in the top three.

Favorite album – Variable again, but Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne for sure

Favorite dysfunction – Hmmmm . . . Erectile? Male obsession with boner pills has led to some of the most peculiar and delightful advertising.

WAIT! THERE’S A SPECIAL OFFER!

OK, dear readers, that was fun. But, given that the Divine Ms. T’s readers tend toward the romance end of the spectrum, I suspect I’ve pretty much thinned out the herd at this juncture, sent most of ya’ll who stopped by streaming for the virtual exits, clucking your tongues and wondering about Thea’s sudden lapse in taste and judgment. (On the other hand, there is that whole dragon sex thing, so maybe you lot have a higher kink tolerance than I give you credit for – I mean that’s bordering on bestiality, that dragon love business. “Not at all!” you’re all saying. “The dragon guy is in his HUMAN form during the love scenes!” Yeah, sure, you keep telling yourselves that. And keep thinking that his being hung like a, well, dragon, has nothing to do with your attraction.)  So I dunno, maybe you guys are my kinds of peeps after all.

Anyway, on to the self-pimping portion of today’s program. I got this book out there, OLD SCHOOL? Poor thing needs some eyeballs, and I’m not above paying for them myself.  So I’m giving away five copies to folks who comment on the post. If there are only five comments, then everybody gets one. If there are more than five, then Thea will pick five winners. If there are less than five? Well, that will be pretty humiliating, won’t it? Not even being able to give my book away?  You don’t want to make a grown man cry, do you?  ‘Cause I will. I’ll cry and I’ll post a YouTube video of my bitter tears, the wrenching sight of which will haunt all you non-commenters until the end of your days. I mean c’mon, how hard is it? You click the comment box, you type some crap. You can get back at me – you can post a devastating review on Amazon. So we got a deal, right? RIGHT?

Thanks for reading along. And, Thea, thanks for having me over. Sorry about the mess. But hell, you should have known better.

~~~

Dan’s giveaway ends Friday April 27th at 12 noon MDT.

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Blog post: A Tale of Two Saturdays

This is a tale of two Saturdays—the Saturday I expected to have and the Saturday that actually occurred.

This morning, around 11:15 am, I was lounging in my pajamas and drinking coffee when I received a phone call.  It was from the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Thornton.  A very nice manager asked me if I remembered that I was scheduled for a book signing there on the 21st, from 11 am to 2 pm, because four groups of people were waiting for me in the café.

Oh, the horror.

This was like one of those anxiety dreams—you know the kind.  You’re still in school and you’re late for a test, but you have no idea which classroom you’re supposed to go to.  Or perhaps you arrive at school at the end of the semester, when you were supposed to be going to class all along.

I said to the very nice manager, “When I called Barnes and Noble last week, the event had not been listed on the website.  I cancelled the signing today, and we were to reschedule, so that the event could be posted on the store website for a couple of weeks to get reader attention.”

The very nice manager said, “There was a miscommunication.  After talking with you, the other staff member put the signing on the website.”

“Please apologize to the people who are waiting,” I said.  “I will be there in forty five minutes.”

After hanging up, I threw on a simple black dress, slapped on some makeup, printed up directions and raced out my front door.  I arrived at the bookstore an hour and fifteen minutes late from the original time.

Here’s where I am brokenhearted, because one reader had brought all four of my books in the Elder Races series for me to sign, and she had given up and left.  I never got the chance to meet her.

Here’s where I am also even more disoriented than ever, because after meeting the very nice manager in person, he said that someone was waiting to meet me that knew me when I lived in Indiana.  By this time, you can imagine that I felt like I had walked into an episode of the Twilight Zone.  I followed the very nice manager to the signing table, and there I met…. One of my former professors, the retired Associate Dean from the university library where I had gone to graduate school and gotten my M.L.S. degree.

It was terrific to see her again, and to meet her husband.  Turns out, they live only a half an hour away from me, and we are planning to get together soon.

I also met some wonderful new people today, and I hope to set up another signing soon with the bookstore that will be problem free, so it turned out to be a most excellent Saturday.

But I am still so sorry about the reader who came with her hopes up, whom I never got a chance to meet.  Dear reader, if you see this blog posting, please do email me at:  thea@theaharrison.com.   I would love to sign your books for you.

Thea

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Blog Post: Create an Elder Races Character Contest

This week I asked people on Twitter and on Facebook if they would enjoy a contest where they could name an Elder Races character for one of my stories.  So many of you responded with such enthusiasm, I have constructed a Create a Character Contest, which will run from now until 12 noon MDT April 30th.

To enter the contest, comment here on my blog and in ONE paragraph give me four things:

1. Give me a name

2. Tell me which Elder Race this character is, or if he/she is human.

3. Give me an age for the character.

4. Tell me whether this is a male or a female.

~~~

After that, I’ll take it from there!  I’ll pick a winner, to be announced at 12 noon MDT on April 30th.  I’ll take the details from the winner’s entry and create a secondary character that might be a good guy but could be a bad guy.

That character will appear in novella #4, HUNTING SEASON, which is the last of my planned Elder Races short stories and will end the story arc from TRUE COLORS (#1), NATURAL EVIL (#2), and DEVIL’S GATE (#3).

Can’t wait to see the comments.  Let’s have fun!

Smiles,

Thea

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Blog Post: Cover Art for DEVIL’S GATE

Here is the cover art for DEVIL’S GATE, which is novella #3 in the Elder Races series.  The story is approximately 26,500 words in length.

My utterly wonderful Samhain editor, Heather, got approval for the cover art so that I could post it today.  We’re both so excited!

The hero in DEVIL’S GATE is the Vampyre Duncan Turner, and the heroine is the medusa Seremela Telemar, both secondary characters in the full length novels.  I love this rendition of Duncan–I think it captures him perfectly!

DEVIL’S GATE is scheduled for release on Tuesday, June 5th.  We anticipate that it will be available for preorder at the major bookseller websites by the end of next week!  (Monday April 30th at the very latest.)

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Blog post: Writer Wednesday winner!

KayeT is the winner of this week’s giveaway with Joelle Charbonneau.  I’ve emailed KayeT separately–congratulations!

My next guest author on Wednesday the 25th is author and friend Dan O’Shea.  Dan writes gritty thrillers, and I’m looking forward to his post next week.

Happy reading, everybody!

Thea

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