Sorry, you must be a member of this group to do that.
Jeaniene Frost's Blog, page 43
January 21, 2012
$.99 special
I just realized that while I announced this before on Facebook and Twitter, I neglected to mention it on my blog (Bad author, no cookie!). First, sorry about that. Second, for a limited time, the e-anthology Under Her Skin is only $.99. Below is the description.
Three short stories of paranormal romance from bestselling authors Jeaniene Frost, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook. "Pack" by Jeaniene Frost brings you a tale of a lost hiker and her encounter with some very frightening–and sexy–wolves. A female werewolf helps a sheriff track down a killer "In Sheep's Clothing" by Meljean Brook. A woman must repay her family's debt to a shapeshifting magician in Ilona Andrew's "Grace of Small Magics." These stories previously appeared in print in the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance.
Click to read a free sample.
Order at:
Smashwords , Amazon , Barnes and Noble , or iTunes
Please note that the limited time $.99 deal is only available for ebooks. If you want to read Under Her Skin for $.99, but you don't have an e-reader, never fear, here are instructions on how to read an ebook without an e-ereader (hint: If you're reading this post on a computer, laptop, tablet, or a phone, you can read an ebook the same way 
). If you only read in print, these stories are available, as stated above, in The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance but the cost is higher because the printed anthology contains more stories than just these three.
Hope you enjoy!
Mirrored from Frost Light.
January 16, 2012
Back to work and cable woes
Copyedits for Once Burned have been turned in, my inbox is mostly caught up, and I have a decent start on a new music playlist. These are all good things because today marks my official "Back to new writing" schedule. What am I writing, I'll assume you asked? Cat and Bones book seven. Last week I cleared the outline with my editor so it's full steam ahead. The scariest words for me to write are Chapter One, but I got through those a few days ago so I'm telling myself the worst is over (Wrong! every writer exclaims with a knowing cackle). Okay, yes, there may be times when I rant to my friends over a plot point that isn't working the way I want it to, or stare at a blank page while wishing it would magically writing itself, or gaze longingly at the window while fantasizing about chucking my laptop through it, but right now, I'm still pretending these things won't happen (They will). Still, there will also be times when inspiration strikes out of the blue, when plot threads comes together in exciting ways, when a character surprises me with their actions or a new one shows up on the page unplanned (that's how Tate, Vlad, Marie, Annette and Tyler appeared). For me, writing with an outline is like going on a long trip with Mapquest directions: I know where I'm headed, and I've marked the exits and the streets to turn on, but the details of the journey and everyone I'll meet along the way are yet to be determined. Filling in these blanks makes writing fun and balances the harder aspects of the trip.
In non-writing chatter, what hasn't been fun is my recent experience with a cable company. In fact, it's made me worry that this commercial will prove to be prophetic:
When we moved to NC, we switched from Direct TV to Charter. Since signing a contract where I promised to stay with them for two years, and they promised to give me their fastest internet speed along with a set price on cable channels and phone service, we've had this very interesting relationship where I keep paying what I promised, and they keep lowering my internet speed. Then, we play a game where I call and complain and they send techs to the house who tell me that I have to upgrade my modem or other equipment. After I upgrade and the speeds are still lower than promised, they send more technicians who say they can't fix the problem, but they'll have a supervisor call (cue crickets chirping while the phone remains silent). I'm at the point where I'll have to complain directly to the regional office, hope I'm not ignored there, too, and fight cancellation fees if I am.
The moral of the story that most of you probably already know? Think twice about signing a contract, especially if you're new to the area and not familiar with whether the company is reliable. And if one day you find me in a roadside ditch, well, you'll know that commercial was prophetic after all 
.
Mirrored from Frost Light.
January 7, 2012
New year, no resolutions
Hope everyone had a great holiday! As stated in the subject line, I decided not to do any resolutions for 2012. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I'm taking the year off. I still have deadlines, appearances, and plenty of other things to keep me busy, but I want to reset how I go about approaching those.
Take losing weight. One of my hopes is to shave off some of the extra jiggle that found its way onto me, and I'll do it by eating healthier and moving around more (my couch and I spent a lot of the holidays together, heh). But I'm not going to berate myself during this process, and here's why. Through middle school and high school, I was bulimic. (Side note: Bulimia is a great way to ruin your health and slow your metabolism. It is, however, a lousy way to actually lose weight, as I learned while in rehab for it). Treatment got me over the binging-and-purging aspect of my eating disorder, but I still had a lot of the mentality. In essence, I continually thought I'd be happier if I was a size smaller. Didn't matter if I reached that goal size, either. Then the next smaller size was the real doorway to happiness. So no matter what size I was, the nirvana of body image contentment was always out of reach.
It took all of my twenties and a good amount of my thirties to get over this mentality. Now my self-esteem isn't held hostage to a number on a clothing label. I've learned think in terms of healthy or unhealthy regarding my weight, and I've also learned not to despise myself if I drift into the latter. Instead, I try to work back toward the former with mental encouragement instead of angry inner berating, which was what I used to do when the scale would slide up instead of down.
I'm slowly learning that same lesson with writing, by the way. When I started out, all I wanted to do was finish a book. That, I was convinced, would be enough for me. And when it happened, it was great, but as soon as I typed "the end" I realized the inner validation I'd been looking for wasn't there. I thought I'd find it by having a professional tell me it was a good book, so signing with an agent became my new quest. Countless revisions and queries later, I did. Then I thought it would be enough if the book sold. When that happened, I told myself what would really make me feel secure was if the book did okay. After it hit the extended bestseller lists, I was thrilled, but right behind that was doubt. Maybe my first book was just a fluke. Okay, if the second one did well, then I'd finally feel secure about my writing…
I don't think I need to go on for you to see the trend. Years later, I'm awed and humbled by what's happened with my career, but self-doubt is still only a mood swing away. I'm beginning to realize it always will be, no matter if my future books do even better than my previous ones. Just like with clothing size, I'd thought there was a publishing milestone that would ease my insecurities if I could only reach it, but it doesn't exist. Instead, the real trick is learning to be satisfied with how things are instead of seeking what's eternally around the corner. Emotionally speaking, that's the same as chasing my tail, and everyone knows that if you spin around in circles long enough, you won't like how you feel.
That's why no resolutions for me this year. I have the tendency to turn those into barricades that hinder me from truly being happy today, and since today is how each of us live our lives (until someone invents a time machine that can transport us into the future!) today is all I have. So instead of resolutions, I have hopes for 2012. I hope I'll write good books that people will enjoy. I hope I'll be a better wife, family member, and friend. I hope I'll get back to a healthier way of eating and exercising. I hope I'll get angry less and learn to forgive more, and in the meantime, I hope I'll be able to enjoy today. I hope that you'll be able to enjoy it, too .
Mirrored from Frost Light.
December 26, 2011
Once Burned excerpt
Hope everyone had a great holiday! I’ve been asked by several readers to post an excerpt from Once Burned, and to show that I can be obedient, here one is . For those who haven’t read the book’s description, I’m also copying it below. In this scene, Vlad has just brought Leila back to his house under an agreement she isn’t so comfortable with – and she doesn’t know he’s the “real” Dracula yet. She thinks he has role-playing issues by calling himself Vlad, heh.
Note: The scene in the book is slightly longer. I edited it to take out some spoilers.
She’s a mortal with dark powers…
After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person’s darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude…until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world’s most infamous vampire…
He’s the Prince of Night…
Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all—but whatever you do, don’t call him Dracula. Vlad’s ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him – a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.
***
The word “house” didn’t begin to do justice to the white and gray structure in front of me. I actually had to tilt my head back to see all the way up to the roof. It was at least four stories high, with additional floors on the triangular turrets that rose dramatically on each corner. A myriad of carvings decorated the exterior, from intricate balconies in front of soaring windows to stone gargoyles that glared down from their perches. They weren’t the only sentinels of this gothic-looking palace; at least a dozen people were stationed in various spots around the house, some standing so still that at first glance, I’d thought they were statues, too. A high stone wall with manned lookout towers encircled the property. Beyond that and the surrounding forest, dark gray mountains acted as a natural barrier, adding to the imposing feel of the place.
“Leila.”
Vlad’s voice jerked my attention back to him. He didn’t bother to hide his grin as he glanced down at my feet.
“Don’t you want to come inside before you catch a chill?”
I followed his gaze as if I needed proof that I was standing barefoot on the icy ground. I’d forgotten about the cold, being so caught up in the splendor around me, but now sharp needles of pain pricked my feet.
“Coming,” I said at once.
Two huge double doors opened and Vlad entered through them, nodding at the men who bowed to him as he passed. This time, the obsequious gesture didn’t seem out of place. Anyone who lived in a palace like this would expect to be bowed to. Hell, it was bigger than some royal castles I’d seen on TV.
I followed after him, unable to keep from looking around like a kid. We were inside an enormous hall with ceilings that were decorated with artful beams, frescos and shields. Off to the right, the ceiling lowered and became domed glass. Below it, an indoor garden with plants and flowers were arranged around chairs, couches, and a marble fountain.
Vlad strode by the garden and I followed, catching glimpses of more magnificent rooms as we continued down the main hall. Finally he stopped in front of a staircase.
“Maximus will show you to your room,” Vlad stated. He turned and began to walk away, but my “Wait!” stopped him.
“I can’t shower until I release all my excess electricity,” I said with a shrug. “Don’t suppose you have any lightning rods here?”
“I’ll get some,” he replied, coming closer. “Until then, use me.”
“I can find something else,” I hedged.
A brow arched. “I insist.”
He grasped my hand with those words. His coppery eyes stared into mine, silencing my next protest before I voiced it. He was so close that I imagined I could feel his unusual heat in the scant space between us. The warmth from his hand was certainly real. It seemed to slip inside my skin, teasing me with memories of what it felt like to be enveloped in his embrace, that hot, hard body pressed along every inch of me.
I cleared my throat to distract myself from the unexpected tightening of certain parts down below. It didn’t help that he stroked my skin as he waited for my response, even that small touch sending more pleasant tingles through me.
“Are you sure?” I had to drain myself in order for this to be effective, and though he was fireproof, it might still hurt.
He leaned down, his long hair brushing my face. Those dark strands shouldn’t have felt like teasing caresses, but they did, and again, I cursed my strange reaction to him.
“I never do anything unless I’m sure.”
His voice was lower, and his fingers tightened on my hand. A bolt slid into him that I hadn’t meant to send, but he didn’t appear to mind. Instead, a slow smile spread across his lips.
“More.”
***
Once Burned releases June 26th. Right now, excerpt chapters are available as sneak peeks in the Magic Graves and The Bite Before Christmas anthologies. As I do with every upcoming book, I’ll post those chapters on my website closer to the release date.
Mirrored from Frost Light.
December 24, 2011
December 14, 2011
Spreading some TV cheer
Until the 27th, I can say that I'm caught up on writing (Dec 27th is the date I'll get copyedits on Once Burned). This doesn't mean that I'm free from other business duties, but it does mean that I have a little more time away from my desk. Good thing, too. Otherwise, I swear I would've needed a name tag for my husband to remember who I was *wink*.
With this additional down time, I've found some TV shows that I really enjoy. Some of these just debuted, and some have been out for years (but they're new to me! ).
New show with a twist on Grimm's Fairy Tales. In this version, "Grimm's" are people who can see the supernatural and have the strength to fight against it. It's a hereditary thing, and the abilities only manifest when a Grimm family member is about to die/kicks the bucket. The protagonist, a cop, is thrust into his new role as a Grimm when his ailing aunt tells him of his secret lineage. If you like Supernatural, you may want to check this out. My favorite character has to be the slightly geeky, snarky werewolf.
Another show with a twist on classic fairy tales. This one has the premise that the stories are all real, but the characters were cursed by an evil queen into forgetting their true identities while being trapped forever in a small town. Only Emma, the child of Snow White and Prince Charming, can break the curse. Emma is a female bounty hunter with a chip on her shoulder and no belief in fairy tales, but she's dragged into the cursed town by the son she gave up for adoption ten years before. Yes, the premise is corny, but the show pulls it off for me by being whimsical and surprisingly heartfelt. After watching two episodes, I was hooked.
How do I begin to describe this? My best effort, which still falls short, would be calling it a cross between Amityville Horror and The Money Pit. A husband and wife struggling with marital issues think a change of scenery will help, and they move into a "steal" of a house with their teenage daughter. Right from the start, weird things happen. The tension and twistedness increase with every episode, as do the revelations about the house and other characters, until, like a train wreck, you can't look away (or I can't, at least). This series also includes twists I never saw coming and some really dark humor. So much is thrown at you in the first episode that it took until the second one for me to really connect with the characters, but once I did, I was hooked. My sister, who hates horror movies, marathoned seven episodes of this show in one sitting. I think it's because – after episode one – the characters come across so vividly that even non-horror fans can get sucked in.
How did I miss this show before? If you're new to it like I was, the premise is the behind-the-scenes hi-jinks of a weekly live TV show on NBC (I'm guessing a spoof on many of the actors' tenure on Saturday Night Live). The characters are over-the-top flawed, the banter sarcastically hilarious, and every stereotype from the innocent page to the unscrupulous CEO is exploited to full comic potential. I wasn't an Alec Baldwin fan until I started watching this and had no idea he could be so funny. Tina Fey is brilliant as usual, as is the rest of the cast. Season One was funny, but things really hit their stride for me in the later seasons.
Shows I'm anxiously awaiting new seasons from in 2012 are Justified, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Sherlock, and Merlin. Shows I still like, but am getting frustrated with are Supernatural (they BETTER not have done what the last episode implied) and Boardwalk Empire (Season Two's final episode was depressing, imo).
What shows are you watching/looking forward to/getting frustrated with?
Mirrored from Frost Light.
December updates
Because of finishing revisions, rushing to get the house ready for our guest, and other things, I neglected to mention a new release. On November 29th, my e-novella RECKONING came out.
Description: In New Orleans, a pair of undead serial killers are about to turn Mardi Gras into a horror show—unless the immortal hitman Bones can hunt them down first. From Jeaniene Frost comes a thrilling prequel novella featuring characters from her New York Times bestselling Night Huntress series. Originally appeared in the anthology Unbound.
As stated above, RECKONING was originally published in print back in 2009 in the Unbound anthology. It’s still available in print (Unbound retails for around $7.99), but if you want to read it by itself in ebook form, it’s only $1.99. Why does the print version cost more? Because there are several stories in it, not just one. If you’re interested in reading RECKONING for $1.99, but you don’t have an ereader, you can still get it on your pc, laptop, phone, or other device. Details on how are here: http://jeanienefrost.com/discount-ebo...
RECKONING was inspired when I went on a haunted walking tour of New Orleans in 2005 and heard about the infamous husband-and-wife serial killers, the LaLauries. Back then, I’d been shopping Halfway to the Grave, but hadn’t sold it yet. Still, while hearing about the heinous deeds of the LaLauries, I couldn’t help but think that, in my books, they would be exactly the type of evil characters that my bounty-hunting hero, Bones, would have taken a contract on.
Fast forward three years when I was invited to partcipate in a dark fantasy anthology. I knew I wanted to write something from Bones’s point of view, and I wanted it before he met Cat so I could give readers a glimpse of how he’d earned his badass reputation. It was also the perfect chance to utilize my twist on the chilling historical couple, the LaLauries. Since RECKONING is set in New Orleans, expect to see the voodoo queen Marie Laveau put in an appearance, too. You’ll also learn the reason behind Bones’s cryptic comment in Destined for an Early Grave about being banned from the city for several years. As a series timeline indicator, RECKONING takes place right before Bones leaves for Ohio and meets Cat, so his next “hunt” gave him much more than he bargained for :).
Hope you enjoy!
November 22, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving and holiday contest
First, thanks so much for all your supportive comments on my last post. I'm late replying to them because revisions for Once Burned are due back to my editor next week (Time off? What's that? ). Thanksgiving is this week, and on Thursday, I'm looking forward stuffing myself with turkey and, well, stuffing, heh. Calorie counting will have to wait until later.
Speaking of the holidays, if some of yours - like some of mine – have been of the less-than-tranquil variety, you'll perhaps appreciate the post I wrote talking about holiday mayhem over at Larissa's Bookish Life. In it is an opportunity to win a signed copy of The Bite Before Christmas antho. Go here to read the post and for contest details: http://www.larissaslife.com/2011/11/holidays-let-mayhem-begin.html
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, hope you and yours have a great remainder of the week! See you after these revisions are finished and turned in…
Mirrored from Frost Light.
November 17, 2011
Reflections on a bend in the road
To save anyone looking for professional updates some time, let me state up front that this post has nothing to do with book updates or writing. Every once in a while, I get reflective about personal things, and this is one of those times. Read on at your own risk .
Recently, my husband and I went to Florida to visit our family. We left our house about eleven hours after I turned in Once Burned, to give you an idea of my schedule. Three days after we arrived in Florida, I was in an Emergency Room with such pain on the left side of my chest that I thought I was having a heart attack at 38. That was ruled out after an EKG and blood work, but then the doctors wanted to make sure I didn't have a pulmonary embolism, which they told me would be very bad. In the hours while I awaited my diagnosis, I was reminded of two things that I hadn't focused on as much with my busy work schedule.
The first was the importance of my faith. In some circles, Christianity has become synonymous with intolerance, which makes me sad because I see its foremost message as love and forgiveness. Rather than get into a dispute over who's right and who's wrong, I'm going to touch upon what my faith means to me. It means that despite how afraid I was over what might be wrong with me – and I was very afraid – I didn't lose hope. My husband waited with me in the ER, but when the nurse wheeled me off to have a CAT scan of my lungs, I was Patient X to her, which I don't blame her for because she was focused, as she should be, on doing her job. I was focused on wondering if I'd see my family again, what the odds of recovery were if I did have a pulmonary embolism, and how I didn't want to die because I wanted more time with my husband. When the nurse slid me into that long tube to have the lung scan done, it felt like everything had been stripped away from me except for one thing. My faith. Faith meant I wasn't alone in that tube. It also meant that even if I didn't have my husband waiting for me in the other room, or my family at home – who I didn't tell about my ER visit because I didn't want to worry them until we knew what was wrong – or my friends, I still wouldn't be alone. To me, faith doesn't mean that everything will always be okay, or that I'll never be afraid, or even that I won't wonder Why? when I look at all the injustice in the world. But it does mean that if everyone and everything else falls away from me, I still won't be abandoned. I wish I could articulate it better than this, but even though words are my trade, they're not sufficient to describe the difference my faith has made to me.
The other thing that resonated with me was how powerful love is. Yes, that sounds cliche, and if I was in one of my jaded moods, I'd stop reading right now if this was someone else's blog. Yet I wasn't the only one unsure of their fate in that ER, as you can imagine. In the same room, separated by a curtain, was an elderly man that sounded like he was perpetually drowning. He couldn't even swallow his own spit without gagging, and he gasped for breath in between those awful heaving sounds.
I'll be honest – I thought he was a goner. He did, too, and in between gagging, gasping, and heaving, he told his wife that he was going to die. Her response was an immediate "No, you're not." She said it with complete conviction, and when he asked her why, no doubt wondering if she'd heard something from the doctor, she replied, "Because I said so."
My husband reassured me in similar ways that everything was going to be fine, and despite the worry in his expression, he said it with the same confidence she had. Of course he didn't know that. Neither did the wife on the other side of that curtain, but they both said it because that's what we needed to hear at the moment. I've been on the other side of hospital beds, too, telling people I cared about that it was going to be okay when I didn't know if that was true. It's not a lie, in my opinion. It's a statement of hope whether it's said from spouse to spouse, friend to friend, family to family, lover to loved one, or any other combination, and it's the love behind the statement that makes it powerful. It makes a difference to the person hearing it, even if the outcome isn't what we want it to be.
In both our cases that night, it was. The doctors ended up giving the elderly man a series of shots that stopped his symptoms, and they told him he could go home after a few hours of observation. Shortly after that, I was told that my lungs were clear and the pain I'd felt was from two inflamed layers of tissue over the lungs that rubbed together the wrong way, causing a searing sensation (probably explaining it wrong because I'm still not clear on the specifics, but all I knew was that it meant I was going home, too).
My follow-up instructions were minimal: Take prescription anti-inflammatories and get some rest. The biggest impact from my first real health scare is more emotional than anything else. I'm very grateful to be back home with my husband, I'm looking forward to seeing my family again in the spring, and the saying "Tomorrow isn't guaranteed" holds a lot more weight. I'm also grateful for the faith that carries me whether the road is rocky or smooth. I'd be lost without it.
And I'm also glad to have a job I enjoy, so don't think this post is my way of saying that I'm taking time off writing. I'm not. It's what I've always wanted to do, and I'll keep doing it as long as I can, but I will set better boundaries with my time and try to work more efficiently.
Speaking of that, I've rambled on long enough in this post . I'll close with a quote that sums up my feelings far more succinctly: "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Mirrored from Frost Light.
November 12, 2011
Home for the Holidays excerpt
Full link to excerpt here: http://jeanienefrost.com/2011/11/home-for-the-holidays-excerpt/
