Skye MacKinnon's Blog, page 12

Once Upon A Twist

There are popular fairy tales we all know and love, those by Hans Christian Andersen, or the Grimm brothers. Beautiful tales of love, romance, and fighting adversity. There are also traditional fairy tales with more than a smattering of blood, death, and heartbreak, but still, they grab our attention and seep into our hearts. 

And then there are the others… 

Fairy tales that are rarely told outside of the countries or cultures they were written in. Tales hidden deep in collections compiled long ago. Or tales that for one reason or another, just don’t receive the attention they deserve. Unusual fairy tales. 

So, nine authors came together to uncover those tales. To pull them from the back of the bookshelves, open the pages of the dusty old tomes they were written in long ago, and retell them with a modern twist all our own: Once Upon a Twist: An Anthology of Unusual Fairy Tale Retellings.
Nine tales spanning fantasy, love, intrigue, and magic… 

So are you ready to read?

Once Upon a Twist: An Anthology of Unusual Fairy Tale Retellings is available now in e-book and paperback from Amazon. It will be free in Kindle Unlimited for 3 months only. 

There only remains one thing to say: “Once upon a time…” 

read once upon a twist

Reverse Harem Book Fair

Post-holiday blues? We have just the thing to fix that...

Our reverse harem book fair features some of the best paranormal romance reads around. Join these leading ladies and their cohorts as they take you on a ride filled with heart-stopping action, thrilling mysteries and steamy romance.

These 99c reads will carry you away to worlds of dragons, wolves, shifters, vampires, sirens and more!

https://www.ljswallow.com/reverse-harem-book-fair/

Christmas Newsletter

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It's almost Christmas! Here's a free book, a new release that will make you feel warmer in this cold time of year, plus a few giveaways...

Unable to view? Read it Online

Welcome to my Christmas newsletter!

Dear readers,

Not long now until the stockings get magically filled and santa gets stuck in the chimney... something like that, anyway. 

Before I start with telling you about my new release, here's a little Christmas present you can put under your tree: a Winter Princess spin-off featuring the demon Chesca as she goes on a bit of a killing spree. Yup, not a very festive story but I hope you like it nonetheless.

Now, let me tell you about a new book that's out today. A few weeks ago, my author friend Laura Greenwood sent me 500 words about a kelpie to sweeten my lunch break. I decided to continue the sotry and sent it back to her. Two months later, it's turned into a book!

It's been a lot of fun to write, especially because of the three yummy men and the large host of mythological creatures (who doesn't like an incubus...). So now it's my great pleasure to tell you that From the Deeps is live on Amazon!

Read it now

Blurb :

Macey is really quite ordinary, if you ignore that she's a kelpie princess living on land. Still, her life is boring until she gets kidnapped by a man who doesn't quite know why he kidnapped her. Try and figure that one out.

Thankfully, he and his two companions are prepared to help her find out why she can't return to Earth from their house in the Mists. Now the only problem is that Macey keeps getting distracted by the three mysterious and very sexy men...

Free on Kindle Unlimited

What I'm reading this week

The Flock Author Collective

Competitions & Deals

I wish you and your families the very best for the festive season, see you in the new year! 

Lots of love,

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Skye MacKinnon, 33 Wisp Green, United Kingdom, Scotland, EH15 3QY, United Kingdom, http://skyemackinnon.com

A Night in the Cold

Last night, I slept outside. It was one of the coldest nights of the winter so far here in Edinburgh, and all I had to protect myself from the cold was a sleeping bag, lots of layers and a very orange survival bag.

Still, that was a lot more than a lot of Edinburgh's homeless have. Which is why I never thought that this was going to be anything like the real 'experience' of sleeping on the streets. We had free hot drinks, a concert, safe spaces to sleep and even a bedtime story.

But it brought it all home. The cold, the darkness, the anonymity of sleeping among people you don't know.

My home for the night ❄️ #SleepinthePark pic.twitter.com/JuYCFHvD5j

— Skye MacKinnon (@skye_mackinnon) December 9, 2017

But let's backtrack a little. The world's biggest sleepout is called Sleep in the Park and took place yesterday in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens. Around 8,000 people attended, among them many celebrities, politicians and businesspeople.

Participants had to raise at least £100 to take part and donations topped £3.6m at the beginning of the evening. Thanks to some very generous donations, I managed to surpass my goal of raising £750.

By raising funds and working together, we can stop the sticky plaster mentality and get to the root issues with a plan to eradicate homelessness over a 5 year period by providing people with housing, rehabilitation, job opportunities and the support they need to get back on their feet.
We want to make Scotland an example for the whole world to follow. We’re a small country. A nation of innovators. The statistics of homelessness in Scotland are not insurmountable.
--Sleep in the Park

Part of the money I raised are royalties from the Snow and Seduction anthology. For the three months the anthology is available to buy, I'm giving half of my royalties to Sleep in the Park. If you want to find out more about Streets of Winter, my anthology story which is set in Edinburgh, here's the blurb:

Emily never expected to find herself on the streets of Edinburgh, looking for a place to stay. In the midst of winter, a park bench doesn't sound very inviting.
When a mysterious stranger invites her into his home, she first suspects he has ulterior motives - especially when she finds out that he lives with two other guys. Is he really the good Samaritan he seems?

Part of Sleep in the Park was a large concert (aka 'busking') with headline act Liam Gallagher (and yes, he played Wonderwall!) as well as Amy MacDonald, Rob Brydon and Bob Geldolf.

Throughout the evening, we were told personal stories by some of the people employed by Social Bite, the charity all the money goes to.

#SleepinthePark is probably the only place where thousands of people applaud a no-longer-homeless man for beating his drug addiction - proud to be here! @SocialBite_

— Skye MacKinnon (@skye_mackinnon) December 9, 2017

While some of the stories were incredibly sad and moving, it brought it all a little closer. Connecting a story with a face always helps.

My personal highlight of the evening was being read a bedtime story by John Cleese, the actor and comedian famous for Monty Python. His fairy tale was just as surreal and funny as you'd expect, and the laughing helped with getting a little warmer.

Then it was off to bed... It was bloody cold. For some not-very-clever reason, I'd chosen a space on a gentle slope - bad idea. The emergency bags we'd been given were very slippery on the tarp and I kept sliding down the hill.

Did I mention it was cold? No matter in which position I tried to get some rest, there was always one body part turning into ice. I should say at this point that I was wearing 3 pairs of trousers, 4 shirts, a fleece jacket, a coat, two pairs of socks, gloves, a hat (on top of two hoodies) and a scarf. Plus a sleeping back and a sleeping bag liner.

It wasn't enough. Imagining how people sleep outside every day in a lot less than that... wow. I didn't get any sleep at all and was glad when at 5am others slowly started to get up.
My bag and boots were completely covered in frost. Luckily we didn't get any rain or snow, but apparently it went down to -6 C during the night.
Cold.

So now that I'm back in my warm living room, what did I learn? Has it changed anything?
Yes.
I am more aware of what's going on in my city and my country. There are around 11,000 homeless people in Scotland, although only 281 of them sleep rough (many others stay in temporary accommodation or sofa-surf). It's not an insurmountable number. There are things that can be done, and with so much support from both business, government and us normal people, we can do something about it.
Money raised during Sleep in the Park will go to:
Around 475 homes for homeless people will be provided across Edinburgh, Glasgow and the central belt, and support, job opportunitites and rehabilitation to the new tenants.
Make sure that nobody has to sleep outside in Edinburgh this winter by providing enough shelters (already achieved).Encourage 1,000 employment pledges from private sector.Invest in nationwide jobs program for the homeless and dddiction rehabilitation facilities.And hopefully: end homelessness in Scotland within 5 years and be an example for other countries.

Thank you to everyone who donated! You're all amazing and together, I hope we'll have made a difference!
- Skye

you can still donate until christmas

Join my VIP Reader Group

I'm currently fundraising for Sleep in the Park, a charity fighting homelessness, and will be sleeping rough for a night on the 9th Dec to raise money.

While writing my contemporary reverse harem Streets of Winter (in the Snow and Seduction anthology) I researched a lot about homelessness and was quite shocked about how many people are living on the streets, especially now in winter. I'm already donating half of my royalties of that anthology to the charity but n...ow I would like to get you, my amazing readers, involved as well.

To say thank you, I'm going to add everybody who donates (no matter how much) to my new VIP Facebook Group, where I will be posting the next chapters of Streets of Winter (I'm turning it into a full length novel) while I write them. You'd be able to get up close with the writing process, ask questions, get to name characters and maybe even influence the plot.
You can donate here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/skyemackinnon

Then comment below or send me an email and I'll add you to the group.

Thank you so much for your support in advance, together we'll be able to make a real difference!

Free sample of Polar Destiny!

Want to read the beginning of Polar Destiny before it gets released on the 6th?
Get your free sample

Polar Destiny has a new look

My upcoming dystopian reverse harem romance Polar Destiny has a brand new look! Thanks to the amazing work of Magical Cover Design, Isla and her polar bear Torben are now looking forward to meeting you - very soon!

The books is up for pre-order and I might pull the date forward from January to December, if everything goes to plan.

What is it all about? Here's the blurb:

About to be sold off to the highest bidder, Isla chooses instead to escape over the frozen sea to an unknown Scottish island. There, she finds herself surrounded by four mysterious men. They seem to care for her, but Isla soon discovers she's not as safe as she thought. The four strangers are bear shifters; very hot bear shifters with an aversion to wearing clothes. As winter approaches, the bear within takes over, leaving Isla wondering if she is safe with them. Can she tame her four shifters? And aren't four men three too many?

Winter Heiress is available to pre-order!

I can't wait to tell you that Winter Heiress, the sequel to my bestselling novel Winter Princess, can now be pre-ordered!

Winter Princess was released as a serial, while Winter Heiress is a full-length novel. I'm currently working on it and it will be out in February, just in time for Valentine's Day.

Wyn thought everything would be unicorns and rainbows once she'd reached her mother's palace. Unfortunately, it's quite the opposite. The Summer King is moving his troops and the closer they come, the weaker Queen Beira becomes. It falls to Wyn and her Guardians to protect the Realm, whether she wants to or not.

PRE-ORDER

Heart of Time is on sale!

For the first time ever, my fantasy novel Heart of Time is on sale for only 99c!
Amazon
iTunes
Kobo
Nook (Barnes & Noble)
Google Books

In a world where magic is outlawed, Eona has been hiding her true nature all her life, only using it to make her circus performances even more spectacular. She's always known that her ability to manipulate time could make her a target, but she couldn't have prepared for being kidnapped, manipulated and imprisoned.

After weeks in prison, the Royal sorcerer Lassadar offers her a way out by training her. But can she trust the King's right hand man?

In order to figure out what he wants from her, she needs to explore her own magic, the bond she feels with a mythical creature, and the feelings she has for a beautiful elven woman.

I'm also happy to announce that the sequel, Heart of Four, can now be pre-ordered!

99 Pennies Sale