Jordan L. Hawk's Blog, page 31

Cover Reveal: Hunter of Demons

Hunter of Demons is the first of a planned series of novellas about a federal agent tasked with exorcising and destroying demons–or Non-Human Entities (NHEs) as he would call them–and the possessed hottie he falls in love with.

Hunter of Demons will be released February 5, 2013!

Autumn’s Harvest Blog Hop

Fall has always been my favorite season. There is something poignant about this time of year: the lengthening shadows and shortening days, the smell of burning leaves on the air, the crunch of fallen leaves beneath your feet. All of nature seems restless: squirrels frantically stockpiling nuts, antler-crowned stags battling over does, great orb weavers spinning enormous webs, and flocks of birds heading south in a black river across the sky.

So much memory and emotion is invested in autumn for me. The tangy smell of apple cider brings back recollections of buying it fresh-pressed from a roadside stand. The scent of smoke from the neighbor’s chimney reminds me of chopping wood for the stove which was our only way of heating the house I grew up in. And of course the explosion of color, the last farewell from dying leaves who have served their purpose and now must be discarded.

It seemed natural to set Hainted in the fall. There is the obvious connection between the death of summer and the dead souls Leif and Dan are charged to lay to rest, of course. But for me autumn carries with it a sort of wistfulness, a sad beauty, which fit the mood of portions of the book. There is a sense of last chances in fall–but wrapped up within them is the promise of new life, for those that survive winter’s cruelty.

What about you? What thoughts does fall invoke? What’s your favorite season? Everyone who comments below between now and midnight EST on November 12th will be entered to win a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate! Please note: you must include an email address so I’ll have some way to contact you.

In addition, every commenter will also be entered to win the following Autumn’s Harvest Blog Hop grand prizes:

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

You can find the full list of participating blogs here. And don’t forget to comment – the more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win!

Weekly WTF?

People love to collect things which used to belong to other, more-famous people. Just watch any episode of Antiques Roadshow. From George Washington’s false teeth to Daniel Boone’s marriage certificate, people will squeal, gasp, and pay top-dollar for things once owned by their heros.

But sometimes, collectors go a little overboard. Take Napoleon’s chaplain, who apparently  made off with the royal penis when the former emperor died in exile. Yes, Napoleon’s own personal man of God made off with his own personal junk.

Napoleon, presumably with his penis still attached.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the mummified (and much shrunken–ouch) penis passed through a number of hands (*snicker*), until it was bought by an American collector and put on display at parties. I can only imagine the conversation this particular cocktail weenie must have inspired.

In a final insult to the once-mighty member, Napoleon’s penis is currently spending its afterlife in New Jersey, in the possession of a collector’s heirs. That would be enough to give anyone a complex.

Autumn’s Harvest Blog Hop this Friday!

Hi all! I’ll be posting on Friday this week instead of Wednesday (well, except for this) as part of the Autumn’s Harvest Blog Hop.

What do you love about Autumn and Fall? What does it remind you of? What about reading? Do you think it’s a good subject to read? Tell us your favorite Autumn stories! Well, we authors are ready to share our favorite Autumn stories and why we love snuggling in the cold.  *wink* Starting on Friday and ending on Oct 22nd, over 200 Authors and Bloggers will share their favorite things about the season.

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger. I will be offering a $5 Amazon gift certificate to one randomly-chosen commenter.

But that’s not all….

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?



1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Pretty spiffy, huh? So be sure to come back on Friday for the hop!

Link-o-Geek

Do you like Star Wars? What about old-school table-top role-playing games? Are you reading Darths and Droids?

I sincerely hope you answered yes to all three, but if not, I am here to help you out. Darths and Droids is a Star Wars parody webcomic which, using nothing but screenshots of the movies, recasts the series as a role-playing game. Check out the sample below:

This is what happens when one of the players has to babysit his sister, and the GM tells her to make a character and describe it.

Click here to read all the way from the first episode, and get ready to laugh.

Widdershins Sneak Peek

Widdershins, my mythos-inspired, Gilded-Age paranormal romance will release on December 4, but for now please enjoy this sneak peek of chapter one!

Some things should stay buried.

Repressed scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne has two skills: reading dead languages and hiding in his office at the Ladysmith Museum. After the tragic death of the friend he secretly loved, he’s ruthlessly suppressed any desire for another man.

So when handsome ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty approaches him to translate a mysterious book, Whyborne wants to finish the job and get rid of the detective as quickly as possible. Griffin left the Pinkertons following the death of his partner, hoping to start a new life. But the powerful cult which murdered Glenn has taken root in Widdershins, and only the spells in the book can stop them. Spells the intellectual Whyborne doesn’t believe are real.

As the investigation draws the two men closer, Griffin’s rakish charm threatens to shatter Whyborne’s iron control. When the cult resurrects an evil sorcerer who commands terrifying monsters, can Whyborne overcome his fear and learn to trust? Will Griffin let go of his past and risk falling in love? Or will Griffin’s secrets cost Whyborne both his heart and his life?

Click here to read chapter one!

The Diamond Ring

For our final ghostly tale this year, we return once again to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Dare County is named after Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World–and who met a mysterious fate when she and every other soul in the colony of Roanoke vanished without a trace.

In Dare County is a little town called Nags Head, which is where this story takes place. Nags Head also has an interesting history behind its name. As mentioned last week, the sea in the area is treacherous indeed, and at night sailors had to be on constant lookout for any light on shore to indicate a known landmark. Local “wreckers” would tie a lantern to a nag’s head and lead it along the beach, tricking the sailors into steering their ships onto the shoals. The wreckers then looted the ships–and made certain no survivors lived to report them to the authorities.

Perhaps young David was a wrecker: how else to explain the gorgeous diamond ring he presented to his fiancee, a ring far grander than anything a simple fisherman could afford. Kate didn’t question the ring’s origins too closely; instead, she flaunted it every chance she got. Many of the young women in the area were jealous, but none more so than her own sister, Mary.

Was the ring cursed, having been obtained through treachery and murder? No one knows, but David died shortly thereafter in a fishing accident. Kate grew pale and sick, and soon followed her lover to the grave.

As was the custom of the time, a family member was expected to sit up with the body all night before the funeral. No one thought it strange when Kate’s sister Mary volunteered for the duty.

Mary sat beside the pale body for many long hours. She and Kate had been close when young, but lately had started to drift apart. It was Kate’s fault, really; she’d always been one to put on airs, as if they hadn’t been raised in the same two-room shack. Things had gotten even worse after David gave her the diamond ring.

That beautiful ring.

Mary leaned over and peered into the coffin. Her sister’s hands were folded over her unmoving chest, and the light of the single candle caught in the facets of the diamond, so it blazed with cold fire. It would be such a shame to put something so beautiful in the ground, where no one could see it. What good would it do Kate now? It wasn’t as if she could bribe St. Pete with it, after all.

For long hours, Mary struggled with her thoughts. Then, just before dawn roused the rest of the community, she grasped Kate’s icy fingers and removed the ring.

Later that day, Mary wept and wailed at the funeral, apparently beside herself with grief for her sister. But sharp-eyed folk noticed the brilliant jewel on her finger, and wondered that Kate had left her engagement ring to her sister.

Several nights later, Mary sat alone in the cottage she and Kate had shared. The winds beat against the shutters, and the crash of the waves could be heard from the other side of the dunes. Along with something else…was that a voice calling out?

The storm could easily have wrecked a ship on the shoals. Mary rose to her feet and went to the door, pressing her ear against it to listen more carefully. Yes–there was a voice, a woman’s voice!

A familiar voice.

“Mary,” called Kate. “Mary, I’m so cold.”

Mary jerked back with a gasp, for Kate’s voice sounded much closer now. But surely it couldn’t be the call of her dead sister–she must be hearing things.

The steps leading up to the front porch creaked: first one, then the other. Then the porch groaned beneath a footfall. Then another.

A heavy knock fell on the door. “Mary. Mary, I’m so cold. Let me in.”

Mary stood transfixed. Someone was playing a trick on her–it couldn’t really be Kate back from the grave.

“Mary! I’m so cold! Mary, open the door and let me in!”

With a trembling hand, Mary grasped the knob and swung the door wide.

The next morning, the neighbors were shocked to see the cottage door standing open. The storm had swept rain and wind inside. Within, they found Mary sitting in front of the unlit hearth, pale as death with one hand wrapped in her skirts. When they gently pulled back the layers of blood-soaked cloth, they found the diamond ring gone–and her finger along with it.

***

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ghostly stories this month. If you like novels featuring ghosts and the undead, Hainted is on sale for the remainder of today (Halloween) for only $0.99 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, and $1 on  All Romance eBooks.

Link-o-Geek

In addition to my “Weekly WTF” on Thursdays, I’m going to post a geeky link here every Tuesday. Let me know if you like this new format, or think it should be banished to the depths of Tartarus.

This week’s Link-o-Geek is a Tumblr which literally made me laugh out loud. There are tons of blogs and sites devoted to Star Trek:The Next Generation, but Fashion It So takes a unique look at the show through its costumes, hairstyles, and accessories.

The 80′s were a strange time.

Even if, like me,  you normally have no interest in fashion, any ST:TNG fan will find much hilarity in this blog. Seriously, check it out.

Oh, and just as a quick note, since Halloween is a pivotal date in my novel Hainted, I’m having a massive sale. 10/30 and 10/31 only, Hainted is on sale everywhere for only $0.99! That’s an 80% discount! You can find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords.

I’ll Be Home for the Holidays (Unless I Go Insane)

I have a message for all retailers. You know those “Christmas in July” sales? They don’t mean you should actually start the holiday season then, okay?

I bring this up, because it seems like we’re heading in that direction, and somebody needs to stop that shit now. Check out the picture I took in a Lowes Home Improvement two freaking weeks ago. Seriously, its mid-October and you have four aisles of Christmas stuff? Whatever happened to Halloween?!

Thumb not included.

I don’t know about you, but last year, after almost three solid months of holiday songs, displays, and commercials, I was about ready to strangle the next person who said anything other than “happy new year.”

This would have been the murder weapon.

For the first time since moving into our house, we didn’t bother to put up a solstice tree, and although we did exchange gifts, I spent less than I had in years because I was so sick of the holidays by then. I’m starting to understand why the Grinch wanted to stick it to those annoying Whos: he’d probably had to listen to their damn carols for three months straight.

The next person who sings “Rudolph” gets it.

So please, retailers, just lay off, okay? After Thanksgiving is the perfect time to start playing holiday music and selling Santa-themed kleenex. Any more of this and I won’t be able to leave my house between September and January for fear of my sanity. And that’s not good news for your bottom line.

Weekly WTF

I love finding weird shit on the internet and in life, and since my most popular post ever was about a photo that was going to kill me in my sleep, I figure you guys like it too. So I’m going to post a weekly link or photo to something that  makes me wonder: “What the hell sort of drugs are these people on?”  Sound good?

A horrible doll with teeth – perfect for your children this Holiday Season! Assuming you never want them to sleep again.

I stumbled across this on Kind of Creepy, which is false advertising in my opinion, because there is nothing “kind of” creepy about this. “Kind of” does not equal “will need years of therapy after viewing,” okay?

If you think your sanity can stand it, there are more puzzling/terrifying doll pictures on their site, but this one tops them all.