Katie Hamstead's Blog, page 44

Cover Reveal: Alexa Crushed by T.R. Cupak (Alexa Crushed #1)

I haven't done a cover reveal in a while! From now on though, I'm only doing tours/cover reveals of books that I like the description. Call it a little Katie endorsement :-)
Publication date: May 20th 2015Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Synopsis:Alexa Morgan lost her mother when she was two. At eighteen, her father and stepmother died when a devastating earthquake hit the Bay Area. Only one person has remained a constant in her life: Devin.
Devin has been Alexa’s best friend since childhood. The two are inseparable—or they were until Devin declared his love for her at sixteen. When Alexa can offer him only friendship in return, Devin retreats, brokenhearted.
Alexa, on the other hand, longs for Ethan, the boy next door. Four years older than her, and with an ever-changing roster of girlfriends, Ethan is everything Devin isn’t: wild, sensual, and unpredictable.
In the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, Ethan makes his move on Alexa, who reciprocates in a confused whirl of grief and desire. When Ethan leaves town shortly after, Devin comes back into Alexa’s life, offering support and expecting nothing in return.
Alexa begins to see the advantages of Devin’s quiet, stable love. But just as her feelings for her old friend begin to blossom, Ethan returns. Now Alexa must choose—the perfect boyfriend or the wild, thrilling bad boy. It’s a choice that changes her life forever.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24820984-alexa-crushed?from_search=true&search_version=service

AUTHOR BIO:T.R. Cupak was born and raised in the suburbs of a Bay Area city in California. She was the closet nerd who hid her love of reading and writing short stories and poetry when she was younger. Back then it wasn’t considered cool to be into those types of activities for pleasure, whereas today you have TV shows, movies and books that glamourize that being a nerd is actually cool.

T. lives in a quiet, little, country town south of where she grew up. She is happily married to an amazing man who supports her in everything she does and spoils her rotten. They have a crazy little Shih Tzu named Harley. He's their fur-baby and even though he’s a pain in the arse most days, they love the little guy. She has an obsession with cars, especially fast ones. She enjoys her music louder than anyone should. Admittedly it’s to drown out hearing her own singing voice, or lack thereof. When she’s not at work or busy writing you can find her curled up reading a book on her Kindle with a glass of wine or Dirty Shirley.

T. lost touch with her creative side and stepped off the path of all things written in her early twenties. Six years ago, her passion for reading was rekindled. She began to utilize reading as a way to escape everyday chaos. Late 2013 she began journal writing. After a couple of months of journaling T. realized that this form of writing wasn't keeping her interest nor was it helping her to relax. After that realization settled in she changed the direction of her writing. Her creative aspirations were flowing once again and she happily embraced it. As her fingers started to dance across her keyboard she began to see her fictional characters begin to breathe life. Writing was only supposed to be a way for the new author to relax, but a story was born and T.R. Cupak is excited to be releasing her self-published debut novel, Alexa Crushed.
Author links: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13452439.T_R_Cupakhttps://twitter.com/AuthorTRCupakhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/TR-Cupak/647978012015198?fref=ts

Teaser Tuesday #4

Raided my blog archives for these. Enjoy!

Dark Quest Author: Jody Lynn Nye

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as ‘spoiling cats.’ When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.             Since 1987 she has published over 45 books and more than 120 short stories, including epic fantasies, contemporary humorous fantasy, humorous military science fiction, and edited three anthologies. She collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on a number of books, including the New York Timesbestseller, Crisis on Doona. She also wrote eight books with Robert Asprin, and continues both of Asprin’s Myth-Adventures series and Dragons series. Her newest series is the Lord Thomas Kinago adventures, the most recent of which is Fortunes of the Imperium (Baen Books), a humorous military SF novel. She also runs the two-day intensive writers’ workshop at DragonCon.
            Her other recent books are Myth-Quoted(Ace Books), Wishing on a Star (Arc Manor Press); an e-collection of cat stories, Cats Triumphant (Event Horizon); Dragons Run (fourth in the Dragonsseries) and Launch Pad, an anthology of science fiction stories co-edited with Mike Brotherton (WordFire). She is also happy to announce the reissue of her Mythologyseries from WordFire Publishing. Jody runs the two-day intensive writers’ workshop at DragonCon, and she and her husband, Bill Fawcett are the book reviewers for Galaxy’s Edge Magazine.
Website: www.jodylynnnye.comTwitter: @jodylynnnyeFacebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jodylynn.nye
1.      Tell us how you came to be an Author with Dark Quest.I got into a conversation with Danielle Ackley McPhaill at a Broaduniverse Rapid-Fire Reading about the Badass Faeries. She mentioned that she was staffing the next one, It’s Elemental, and would I like to give it a try? Answer: yes, I would. It sounded like a bunch of fun.2.      What do you enjoy most about being a DQ Author?I enjoy having a chance to write in a themed anthology with a cool topic. Badass faeries. You can go anywhere with that. My ‘element’ was spirit, so I had a number of faerie-types from which to choose. I selected one that seemed to have attitude built in. My story, “Fifteen Percent,” was about a very dysfunctional co-dependent relationship between an artist, in this case an author, and his muse.3.      What have your experiences been like working toward being published?Every time I work with a new editor is a learning experience. Each comment teaches me something fresh about writing.4.      What would you have done differently?Nothing much. I like the way the story came out. If you mean on my career as a whole, I would have started sooner. I submitted a story toAnalog when I was 19. It was rejected, but with a personal letter from the editor (I would not find out for years how rare and wonderful that is) saying he liked my style and asking for something else. I would love to go back in time and tell my younger self to send another one.5.      How has your book been marketed?I’ve had numerous books and short stories published. (My website is www.jodylynnnye.com) I attend a number of conventions and participate on panels and workshops. I give online and newspaper articles when I can. I have done blog tours to put my name out there on the web pages of online magazines and those of other writers. I have done podcasts with SF/fantasy-oriented hosts. For my latest book, Fortunes of the Imperium (Baen Books; http://ow.ly/LsBEp), my publisher made me 2,500 cover cards, which I have distributed at conventions and in bookstores. I copy my covers onto my Facebook page, and mention new publications on Twitter. I have a website with a blog in the home page, which I admit I could update more often.6.      Any advice on how to better market a book?Get on social media. Promote yourself first, and your book or short story or Kickstarter sparingly. Let people get to know you as more than a salesperson. Get to know people more than as wallets that read. Encourage readers to write reviews for you, especially on Amazon.com. The more reviews you can garner (good ones!), the more likely your book is to be placed in automatic referrals when someone looks at a book in the same genre. Let people know what conventions you will be attending, and list your panels if you know them.7.      Last question; If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, when would it be, and what would you be wearing?
The Academy Awards, wearing a killer Marchesa gown, as they hand me the Oscar for Best Screenplay.


Blurb:Dark Quest Books, Badass Faeries: It's Elemental, http://ow.ly/LCerm. This is the blurb on the Amazon page: 
The Bad-Ass Faeries are back and they are in their Elements!

 Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit...It's time to get down to basics, for the fae answer to a natural order.

In L. Jagi Lamplighter's On Rocky Ground, Mab, Mephisto, and Erasmus go to the mountain to pay a debt, but can they pacify the earth before the mountain comes down around their ears?

 In James Chambers' The Flying Rock, Daniel seeks to give his son and daughter a taste of childhood magic before they grow too old to embrace such things, but the winds blow as they will and he soon wonders will his children even see another day.

 In James Daniel Ross's The Legend of Buck Cooper and the Child of Fire it only takes a spark to start a fire, but what will it take to stop one? Buck Cooper and the brigade must stave off the flames of a war most don't even realize is being waged.

 In N.R. Brown's Melia's Best Wave an oceanid decides she's ready for bigger things, like tackling the deadliest stretch of coastline anywhere. Will she conquer the Mavericks or wipe out for all time?

 In Jody Lynn Nye's Fifteen Percent Marcel Dorner learns it's best to get into the spirit of things when your literary agent is a filandiere, or more than just your career might not survive...

Joined by Kimberley Long-Ewing, Judi Fleming, Danny Birt, Peter Prellwitz, DL Thurston, James R. Stratton, Patrick Thomas, Bethany Herron, Keith R.A. DeCandido and Lee C. Hillman, these authors make it clear why one doesn't mess with Mother Nature...or Bad-Ass Faeries.

Dark Quest Feature End of Month Wrap Up

Thank you to all the authors and staff who joined in with the Dark Quest Feature Month! It's so great to hear from all of them!
As you can see, there's no giveaway this month, sorry! 
I'll be giving the feature months a rest for the summer. They're a lot to coordinate, and with baby coming soon, and three upcoming releases, I don't have the time or energy to manage them. But I'd love to get them going again come the fall. If you have a publisher you'd like to see featured, leave it in the comments and I'll contact them, or if you're a publisher, I'd love to feature you!
The feature months have been widely successful. I've received outstanding hits from them, and such positive feedback. I'm glad I could introduce people to new authors, books, and publishers. There's so much variety out there, it just has to be celebrated!
For now, keep following along. I'll post for Teaser Tuesdays, reviews, tidbits on my books, and whatever else I come up with. I'll be quieter, but still here!

Dark Quest Author: Danny Birt

Award-winning author Danny Birt was born about three decades ago in Washington State to Irish and Californian parents, and has since lived in Idaho, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Hawaii, Virginia, and North Carolina. He studied music therapy and psychology at Loyola University New Orleans, and most recently graduated from Shenandoah University with his Master's Degree in Music Therapy.

Danny has been a contributing author to several sci-fi, fantasy, and professional magazines, anthologies, and journals, as well as a writer for an app. Formerly, he was an editor for Flashing Swords Magazine and Ancient Tomes Press, and is now a freelance editor. His fantasy series “The Laurian Pentology” is being published through Dark Quest Books, starting with "Ending an Ending."

Career hats Danny has worn other than author, editor, and composer include being a music therapist, a massage therapist, a college instructor and program director, a wedding photographer, an on-screen actor, a lifeguard, and a business consultant.

Currently Danny lives in Virginia where, in his spare time, he enjoys engaging in his hobby of finding new hobbies.

Find him at: www.DannyBirt.com 

1.      Tell us how you came to be an Author with Dark Quest.Over the years of being a regular guest at conventions for my books and filk music, I got to know the good folk of Dark Quest, and I appreciated how they treated their authors, product, and brand.  When my previous publisher decided to cease operations, I submitted my three-books-published, two-books-unpublished fantasy series "The Laurian Pentology" to DQ, and they welcomed me under the DQ umbrella.
2.      What do you enjoy most about being a DQ Author?I appreciate the personal support from DQ staff!
3.      What have your experiences been like working toward being published?Wow, that's a broad question, worthy of a blog post all on its own!
4.      What would you have done differently?Other than thoughts of big contracts which have more to do with others' choices than mine, I doubt I would have done much different.
5.      How has your book been marketed?The Laurian Pentology has been sent out for reviews, list served, promoted on literary websites, has recently been made available as an e-book on Amazon's Kindle marketplace, and is promoted by word-of-mouth at every literary convention Dark Quest attends as a vendor.  It certainly shows in my royalty statements!
6.      Any advice on how to better market a book?Step One: Write A Book.  Step Two:  _____.  Step Three: Profit!
7.      Last question; If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, when would it be, and what would you be wearing?The next place I would like to visit which I have not yet visited would be Germany.  I have some friends living over there I haven't seen in years, have a (very) basic understanding of the language, would enjoy sampling the foods and exploring the history in person.  As to what I would be wearing, I would probably start with clothes from home and then peruse what else was available when I got there to flesh out my wardrobe.

Review: Wilde's Meadow by Krystal Wade

From Goodreads:
Happy endings are hard to find, and even though Katriona is in the middle of a war with someone who’s already stolen more than she can replace, she aches for a positive future with her Draíochtans.

Armed with hope, confidence in her abilities, and a strange new gift from her mother, Kate ventures into the Darkness to defeat a fallen god.

Losses add up, and new obstacles rise to stand in the way. Is the one determined to bring Encardia light strong enough to keep fighting, or will all the sacrifices to stop those who seek domination be for nothing?

My Thoughts:
I have enjoyed this series. The plot and world kept me interested and curious. But I couldn't like this last book as much as I wanted to.
Like the first book, I found the first half incredibly slow. Heavy internal dialogue and things that were just repetitive made me frustrated. All I wanted was to get to the battles, to see how everyone overcame their obstacles and weaknesses.
The second half things picked up with battle scenes and intrigue. Although I did feel like I went around in circles with Kate's moping, and with Perth, Cadman, and Rhoswen. I just wanted her to read the letter and get on with it. 

Summing up the series though, it is a fun read, even though I did get frustrated at times. There's some great twists and turns, and of course, a happily ever after that leaves you satisfied with the outcome of everything.

Dark Quest Editor: Jennifer Brozek

BIO:Jennifer Brozek is a Hugo Award-nominated editor and an award-winning author.
Winner of the Australian Shadows Award for best edited publication, Jennifer has edited fourteen anthologies with more on the way, including Chicks Dig Gaming and Shattered Shields. Author of Apocalypse Girl Dreaming, Industry Talk, In a Gilded Light, and the Karen Wilson Chronicles, she has more than sixty published short stories, and is the Creative Director of Apocalypse Ink Productions.
Jennifer also is a freelance author for numerous RPG companies. Winner of both the Origins and the ENnie awards, her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun, Serenity, Savage Worlds, and White Wolf SAS. Jennifer is the author of the YA  Battletech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident. She has also written for the AAA MMO Aionand the award winning videogame, Shadowrun Returns.

When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. Jennifer is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. Read more about her at www.jenniferbrozek.com or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.
1.      Tell us how you came to work with Dark Quest.Originally, Dark Quest Books published my fiction collection, IN A GILDED LIGHT. It was such a good experience that Neal and I talked about me doing anthologies for the company. I agreed. Thus, Beauty Has Her Way and Human Tales was born.
2.      What does your job entail? As an editor, my job is to: Make sure the story fits the theme. The stories fit with each other. That each story is the best it can be. And that the anthology as a whole is cohesive, entertaining, and technically correct.
3.      What do you enjoy most about being an editor? I love finding the exact right story for the project I’m working on and helping make it that much more awesome. I think my favorite part is when that story is acknowledged by my contemporaries.
4.      What have your experiences been like working with the authors?I love my authors, but they are human. I have good experiences and bad ones. Fortunately, more good experiences. The more professional the author, the more they understand the change requests and understand the editor-author relationship is a dialogue.
5.      What is the hardest part of being an editor?Rejections are the hardest. Especially when you want to take a story but you don’t have the word count and/or the budget for it.
6.      And what is the best part?After finding the right story, I love sending out the acceptance letter. It’s that moment of pure joy before both the editor and author need to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Acceptance letters are fun.
7.      Last question; If you could bring any book/movie/TV show to life, what would it be and why?I would love to see Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series come to life and to be able to experience it. Her world of a hidden fae and changeling society in the modern day fascinates me. To have it all be real with be a treat.

Teaser Tuesday #3

Raided my blog archives for some of my friend's books.

Dark Quest Author: Regina Glei

Bio:"Nothing is as interesting as other people's problems."
That's the overall motto of Regina's speculative fiction.
Regina Glei was born in Germany but nourished a fascination for the Far East ever since she was a little girl. A graduate in Japanese Studies, she has resided and worked in Japan for more than ten years. 
Living far away from her home country has been a powerful influence on her fiction, which she describes as speculative and sometimes weird...You can find news about Regina and links to her new novels, novellas, and various short stories on her website:http://www.juka-productions.com/Regina is also on Facebook and Twitter.Links:HP:  http://www.juka-productions.com/Blog: http://www.juka-productions.com/newblog/

1.      Tell us how you came to be an Author with Dark Quest.Oh, the traditional way, I submitted my novella “Lord of Water” some time in, I think it was 2009, and got accepted. By now I have two novellas published with Dark Quest, the second one being “That One Minute”. They are both contemporary fantasies, dealing with being able to command water in the first book and the second is what I like to call a fantasy-horror-comedy about a parallel world that is one minute “closer to death” than ours and filled with angels and demons. A third book, a full length high-fantasy novel, is also in the Dark Quest pipeline but I don’t know yet when it will come out.
2.      What do you enjoy most about being a DQ Author?That DQ was so flexible to allow me to use “my” cover artist. ;-) Naoyuki Katoh is a renowned Japanese cover artist and he has so far done all the covers for my books.
3.      What have your experiences been like working toward being published?To be honest I found and find the way to publication extremely hard and annoying. Too many people want to get published and there are too many people out there taking advantage of eager, hopeful and naïve authors. I’ve encountered (and paid for) fake awards, experienced the frustration of tons of empty and unfulfilled promises, and seen unbelievable arrogance and disrespect, to name but a few things. Sure, I’ve also found friends on the journey. “Survival chances” rise when good people stick together. You badly need a network of positive people to cope with the assholes out there.
4.      What would you have done differently?Research more! Really checking whether anyone gives a damn about those awards advertized, for example. Deeply checking whether agent xyz is really worth submitting to. Subscribing to the “writer beware” newsletter right from the start.
5.      How has your book been marketed?Marketing is a tough topic these days. There are so many books out there – it’s incredibly difficult to be heard. I have not yet found a recipe for success. I have a demanding (and interesting) full time day-job. I have no time to hang out on twitter for facebook 24/7. I’m doing “all those things” that people recommend like being on twitter and facebook (usually once a day), like writing a blog (once a week), like maintaining a homepage, like loading readings up on YouTube, like printing postcards, like going to conventions and yet success is limited, since there are a 100,000 people who are doing the same thing and we also have fewer and fewer readers. On top of that I am living in Japan (it’s a bit complicated, I’m German, live in Japan and write F and SF in English). I could do more if I lived in the UK or US, but I like living in Japan too much for giving up on that.
6.      Any advice on how to better market a book?I’ll try something new now with a soon to be self-published piece, I’ll tweet sort of a consecutive side story once per day for four months (for the moment that’s the number of tweets I have composed already) and see whether that generates any additional interest and readership.
7.      Last question; If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, when would it be, and what would you be wearing?Traveling is one of my passions. I have already visited 26 countries and I am adding at least one country to the list every year. Last year I managed 4! (Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan). This year the plan is Spain and Portugal in August. (One of the categories in my blog is travels and you can find the more recent adventures there in case you are interested.)So if I could go anywhere I would not choose the world but space! That involves wearing a space suit and other astronaut equipment  ;-)

Blurb for “Lord of Water”:What would you do... If the sea spoke to your soul? If all water upon the earth answered to your call? If your heart...and a woman...betrayed you? Pray you never know. Eric Aquatus possesses an incredible gift: He commands water. Afraid of his ability and its consequences, he never explored it as a child. Only as he meets Meredith, the love of his life, who encourages him to experiment, does he begin to fathom all he can do with his gift. Anything from draining the oceans, raising Atlantis, or sinking Japan. Both tempted and tested by his amazing powers, Eric discovers that tough choices as to what to do with his gift and his life lie before him.





Blurb for “That One Minute”All it Takes is That One Minute... You think you know what's wrong with the world...but which one? The one you're in? Or the one that mirrors ours, only one more minute closer to heaven or hell, where "angelics" and "demonics" constantly fight for dominance over our souls? Ask Chris Burns, struggling in a job he hates and dealing with his wife's betrayal when she chooses an Italian restaurant owner over a loser like him. What is there left to care about? But when Chris is offered a divine mission to cross that one minute and to save both worlds, he gets a shot at eternal glory. Can a down-on-his-luck loser prevent a "demonic" uprising? Will he make a difference when faced with battling demons and power-hungry Undersecretaries from the almighty "Ministry of Spirits," all with his know-it-all doppelganger in tow, constantly trying to undermine his efforts... ... at that shot at eternal glory.
Dark Quest Books:http://www.darkquestbooks.com/store/product-list.php?pg1-cid123.htmlDQ books in Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/That-One-Minute-Regina-Glei/dp/1937051781/http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Water-Regina-Glei/dp/1937051358/

Dark Quest Author: Alma Alexander

Bio:Alma Alexander's life so far has prepared her very well for her chosen career. She was born in a country which no longer exists on the maps, has lived and worked in seven countries on four continents (and in cyberspace!), has climbed mountains, dived in coral reefs, flown small planes, swum with dolphins, touched two-thousand-year-old tiles in a gate out of Babylon. She is a novelist, anthologist and short story writer who currently shares her life between the Pacific Northwest of the USA (where she lives with her husband and two cats) and the wonderful fantasy worlds of her own imagination. You can find out more about Alma on her website, her Facebook page or her blog (http://anghara.livejournal.com).
1.      Tell us how you came to be an Author with Dark Quest.Before The Were Chronicles books, my current series with Palomino Press (the YA arm of DQ), I edited a short story anthology called “River” under the DQ umbrella, so they were known to me – and when the new Palomino Press imprint opened its doors and announced it was seeking books, I happened to have the right material on hand. How I crossed paths with DQ in the first place involves a complicated story of science fiction conventions, mutual friends, and shared background and interests. We all just happened to be in the right place and the right time together.
2.      What do you enjoy most about being a DQ Author?Having people I consider friends who are involved with my books – it isn’t a huge faceless conglomerate where there’s a “department” that does the work. Here, it’s people.
3.      What have your experiences been like working toward being published?It’s always been a tough ask. These days writers are told that more avenues are open – and to a point that’s true; there was a relentless contraction in the BIG publishers which ate imprints here there and everywhere until it was irrelevant where you submitted it was all being controlled by the head office anyway and the people in charge there were rarely editors any more but rather marketers who often looked at each acquisition with an eye to the bottom line rather than any other merits. But these days more and more quality smaller presses are springing up again – it’s as though the market ecosystem needs all the new young growth and cannot survive with only five great old trees in what is otherwise a desert – and other things are happening, like writing co-ops (consisting of a group of writers who have banded together in order to help one another with the logistics of creating books – places like Book View Café). I’ve run the gamut of the publishing experience – been published by the Big Six, in the States and internationally; been published by small(er) presses; put together a few (self-published) collections of short stories myself and planted them on Amazon and Smashwords. Personally, because I am a WRITER first and foremost and everything else follows after that, I prefer the experience of going through an actual publisher or somebody who can help with the logistics;  cover designer, copy editor, book formatter, publicist – these are all jobs I’ll tackle if I need to but I much prefer to see them being done by folks who are BETTER at them than I am while I go on to write the next book instead…
4.      What would you have done differently?In what sense? I’d still be writing. Somehow, somewhere, I would still have been working towards publication. There *IS* no “differently”.
5.      How has your book been marketed?DQ deals with distribution and with (some) review copies. I’ve done plenty off my own bat, regarding “Random”, the first book in The Were Chronicles, and I hope to be able to do similar things for “Wolf”, the second book, when it comes out in May. I have a presence on the Internet and the social media – as many of them as I can handle without falling over – I blog – I make personal appearances where they can be arranged – I try to keep myself out there. In the long run, whether or not any of that matters is moot because there have been writers who have been positive recluses when it comes to the Internet who are doing quite well, thank you, and there are those who are everywhere you look but that seems to be the only thing they’re doing and any actual BOOKS seem to be a sideline. You just don’t know. The power of going with an entity with an established distribution channel (like DQ) is that you DO get onto a bookstore’s radar, and the best way to market a book is to make sure it is available for purchase the moment someone’s interest has been piqued…
6.      Any advice on how to better market a book?If I knew the answer to that I’d have people lining up at my door to offer me their first-born children for the secret. I’d love to know, myself. Is there a better way? HOW do you harness that beautiful, powerful word-of-mouth thing? When and where is there a tipping point? Why are some books instant hits, some languish in the shadows for a while and then suddenly burst into flame for no apparent reason, and some (no less deserving) simply languish and NEVER get their day in the sun? If we only knew. In the meantime, we do what we can with what we have and hope that it is enough to grab the right kind of attention at the right time…
7.      Last question; If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, when would it be, and what would you be wearing?I’ve travelled quite a lot, actually, already, and lived in a LOT of different places. But if I could just pop into existence somewhere, right now, it would probably be the English shires (I wouldn’t say no to being based in Oxford) in the summer. And I’d be wearing what’s comfortable and appropriate for that time and place, sitting somewhere in a shady garden under the spreading boughs of a great English oak, in a wicker chair, reading, while the lightest of breezes stirs my hair and I occasionally lift my eyes to where dogs are playing on the sward and smile at them… and am purely happy.


It begins. Somewhere. An insignificant trickle of water. And it changes. And it grows up, and gathers a history, and finds its way into atlases and maps, until it finally reaches the sea, and vanishes into its vastness. You might think it of no importance. That it does not matter. But you follow where it leads... Rivers have always been very important to humankind. They've been explored. They've been navigated. They've been called gods. They've been blessed and cursed and venerated and used and enjoyed and exploited and polluted since the beginning of recorded history. They've been sung about and dreamed about and followed on epic journeys of discovery. They capitals of empires have risen on the banks of rivers - and so have a thousand fishing villages, and river landings, and water mills. There is only one River. Really. And it's all of them. Every river is different - and yet they're all the same, vast and full of life and death and mystery and history and adventure and quiet dreams. Full of life. Full of mystery. Full of stories.
Amazon


My name is Jazz Marsh.

I am a Random Were, which means I am a Were of no fixed form – like all Random Were, my family can become any warm-blooded creature which is the last thing they see before they Turn.

For me, when my time came, that meant… trouble.

I was quite young when I lost my older sister, Celia, and my family never spoke about her. It was only when I found the secret diaries that she had left behind that I began to discover the truth behind her life and her death.

I never understood what drove my moody and dangerous older brother until I began to get an inkling about his part in Celia’s death… and until, driven to the edge of patience and understanding, he finally had to face his own Turn problems… and disastrously took matters into his own hands.

One thing is clear.

Everything I thought I knew about Were-kind was wrong.
ABOUT RANDOM:“You will never read another shapeshifter book like this. Every surprise will catch you unwary. And, like me, you will find that others will have to pry it out of your fingers.”
—Tamora Pierce, bestselling author

“Alma Alexander has created a gripping and complicated story of family loyalty and teenage rebellion. [..] An excellent start to a brave new series.”
—Ysabeau Wilce, award-winning author of the Flora Segunda series
Amazon
Coming in 2015: WOLF (Book 2 in The Were Chronicles) and SHIFTER (Book 3 in The Were Chronicles)