K.F. Breene's Blog, page 4

New Release!

Hunted is LIVE!! The long awaited follow-up to Chosen is now live! Grab your copy. Synopsis:

With a new Chosen coming forward, Shanti has lost sight of her duty. With her plans unraveling, she does the only thing she can think of-- frees her brother and a mysterious stranger from a Graygual camp before heading back to beg for Cayan's aid.

Unfortunately, that stranger was precious to the enemy, guarded by one of the elite. A Superior Officer known as the Hunter, this man always catches his prey, and his focus is now on the elusive, violet-eyed girl and the man she ripped from the his hands. 

With danger mounting, and one of the best constantly on her heels, Shanti will learn that running will never be enough.


Buy it here:
Amazon
iBooks
B & N
GooglePlay
Kobo- coming soon! Haven't tried Chosen? 
Get it on sale for a limited time! I realize that "light fantasy" can be scary to some. What is that crazy genre, anyway? Flying crap and Game of Thrones and weird ridiculousness! Who needs it?!

But if you've read the Darkness Series and even somewhat liked it, this book will be right up your alley. It has strong female awesomeness, snarky humor, swords, magic, and muscular men that really need to get kicked in the head from time-to-time to tame their alpha egos.

In other words, it's the sort of book I luuuurrrrve writing :D

I've put it on sale for a buck celebrating the release of Hunted. Think of it as a "come hither" eye twinkle.

I really hope you enjoy it!

SALE! Darkness Series Boxed Set

For ONE WEEK ONLY  (3/2 - 3/8) - the Darkness Series Boxed Set will be on sale for $0.99!

Yes, this is a huge sale. 

* Four #1 bestselling books
* Over 1,000 five-star reviews (on Amazon US alone)
* Hot alpha males
* A quirky, fun heroine
* An action-packed story you won't be able to put down

Only 99 cents. 

Find it at all major retailers. The special price is an extremely limited time offer.  

iBooks:  http://hyperurl.co/5hnmom
Amazon:  http://hyperurl.co/q1cs4g 
Kobo:  http://tinyurl.com/q8olkob
Google:  http://tinyurl.com/pzkjsz6
B&N:  http://tinyurl.com/omayoba

"K.F. Breene has constructed an incredible world, populated with interesting and deep characters that I am desperate to get to know more intimately. Her writing is fluid, sparked with wonderful humor and rife with gorgeous imagery." - Wicked Women Book Blog 

Books 1-4 in the Bestselling Darkness Series

Experience the roller coaster adventure as Sasha confronts a new world full of magic, mayhem, and love. Follow her journey from an orphan who lost everything, to one of the most powerful mages in the nation. By Stefan's side, an alpha male who rules his clan with an iron fist, she will battle for her place as a Black mage, and leader's mate. This thrill-ride will leave you breathless and begging for more! 

Into the Darkness (Book 1) 

Sasha has grown up with one surety: she’s not normal. 

She sees things in the darkness that no one else can see. Mysterious men cloaked in shadow, moving through the night. The problem is, pointing out invisible people is a fast track to a padded cell. Orphaned at age five, Sasha quickly learns an important survival tip: keep her mouth shut and stay out of the spotlight. 

Until one night, everything changes. Suddenly, the men she was convinced were hallucinations, are very real. And very dangerous. 

As a new world opens up around her, she meets him. The Boss. An alpha leader who entrances her mind and tugs on her body. Primal and sexual, his people have a different set of rules. And they don’t always play nice. 

As danger rises up around her, her differences may be the only thing that saves her life. Sasha must embrace the things she tried so hard to hide, while resisting the person her body craves most. She has finally found her shadow men, and they will change her life forever. 

Braving the Elements (Book 2) 

With a life goal of fitting in, Sasha hopes her strange abilities will finally make true friendship a possibility. Unfortunately, her magic doesn’t function like everyone else’s. What she thought would make her belong, sets her apart now more than ever. 

On a Razor's Edge (Book 3) 

Life for Sasha isn’t getting easier. She has survived run-in’s with monstrous Dulcha, lived through an abduction, and even made it past Charles’ constant badgering for sex. But if she thought the hurdles of this new life were behind her, she was dead wrong. 

When the Regional comes to visit Stefan’s clan, the pressure increases. Sasha finds herself on a giant scale, assessed for her magic and held in the balance. If she doesn’t have the magic Stefan hopes, she could find herself on the street while still in grave danger. Even with a favorable outcome, however, her inability to use her magic presents a road block not easily crossed. 

Demons (Book 4) 

It’s been a long road, but Sasha has finally claimed her role as the least knowledge mage in history. She’s also acquired a new, incredibly grumpy bodyguard, and a spunky new BFF. With her team by her side, she learns the ropes of this new profession. 

Her experience level is about to be fast-tracked, however. 

On a routine trip to check out a perimeter breach, she encounters a hideous demon called by an experienced magic worker. It is this terrifying discovery that unlocks a deeper problem: Stefan’s troubled past. 

Fierce: Sixteen Authors of Fantasy' boxed set

Have you read Chosen yet? 
No?
Well, you can save yourself a couple bucks and get it with this bundle for $0.99!!

Yes?
Then you will probably love the other books in this huge boxed set. And it's 99 cents!!

This highly anticipated boxed set is so hot that USA Today asked to do the cover reveal for it!! View the post here:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyev...


Sorry--I'm a bit excited. I'm paired with some excellent authors in this bundle, each topping the bestseller lists in Amazon. It's crazy that 16 full length, quality books are only a buck. 

Here are the deets:

Pre-order now at iBooks: 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id965680228



Amazon and B&N preorder coming 3/1. Bundle goes live 3/10.


For a limited time only!

Join epic fantasy legend Mercedes Lackey and fifteen additional New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling authors on the adventure of a lifetime!

Over one million words and sixteen realms of fantasy brought together for your reading pleasure. Discover courageous characters fighting for justice and order. Journey between kingdoms of dragons and lands of anarchy as tales of magic and mayhem unfold.

Grab it today, before it's gone!


Mercedes Lackey - Moving Targets

Stuck watching over four Herald trainees on circuit, Elyn is at her wits' end—and that's before a town asks for help with a ghostly infestation.

Michael G. Manning - The Blacksmith's Son

A journey to discover the secrets of his past reveals a magical heritage and embroils Mordecai in a deadly battle for the future of mankind.

K.F. Breene - Chosen

Prophecy has foretold that when war threatens the world, the Chosen will appear to help the Shadow Warriors reclaim their stolen freedom and lead them out of the Land of Mist.

Morgan Rice - A Quest of Heroes

Thorgin, an outsider and a dreamer, fights to become a warrior in an epic quest that finds him at the center of a maelstrom of royal plots and counterplots that threaten him and everyone he loves.

Michael James Ploof - Whill of Agora

When Whill learns the truth of his lineage, he sets out to face his father's murderer, but what he learns along the way will change his life—and the realm—forever.

Daniel Arenson - Requiem's Song

Weredragons, men call them. Monsters. Cursed ones. People who can turn into beastly reptiles. Together they will forge a nation.

Kate Sparkes – Bound

When a young woman accidentally saves the life of an enemy Sorcerer, she finds herself drawn into a world of magic that’s more beautiful, more seductive, and more dangerous than she ever imagined.

David Adams – The Pariahs

Two sellswords—a half-elf and a half-orc—find their war over before it even begins. But trouble is stirring on the home front, conflict which threatens more than just their lives.

Amy Raby - The Fire Seer
Taya must use her fire visions to investigate a series of murders, but the Coalition of Mages has partnered her with her old nemesis, the man who used to bully her when they were young.

C. Greenwood - Magic of Thieves & Betrayal of Thieves

In a province where magic is forbidden, young Ilan, born with the powerful gift of her ancestors, has only one hope for survival—concealment.

David Dalglish - The Weight of Blood

When half-bloods Harruq and Qurrah Tun pledged their lives to a death prophet, they only sought escape from their squalid beginnings. Instead, they become his greatest disciples, charged with leading his army of undead.

K.J. Colt - Bear Heart

In the savage lands of Ruxdor, young Klawdia must fight the champions of four rival clans to defend her future as the first female chieftain.

Shae Ford – Poison

A bandit girl is taken from her home and thrust into a complex world of lords and ladies, where she learns that she must kill to survive.

Endi Webb - The Maskmaker's Apprentice

Masks of legend. Masks of power. Those who dare to wear them trifle with the old powers and risk ruin and mayhem. But a young apprentice maskmaker cannot contain his curiosity, and accidentally unleashes a deadly terror upon an unsuspecting world.

Michael Wallace - The Dark Citadel

A slave boy and a young queen lead an alliance of spies, servants, and merchants to stave off the encroaching armies of a dark wizard.

Terah Edun - Blades of Magic

As an unstoppable war breaks out, a young girl enlists in the military to unravel the secrets surrounding her father’s execution.

Jonas is LIVE!

White Male Self-Entitlement

I am a "white" 35-year-old woman. Before I was writing, I took a tour through various professional industries. In my time, I've been a bookkeeper, bartender, server, gas station attendant, operations analyst, customer service rep, etc. (not in that order) I've gone to school for anthropology, film, acting, and finally majored in business. I worked my way through school--I didn't get any handouts.  When I finally decided I needed to be an adult, I chose a career with a good income, and finally went for it (accounting). 
As you might expect, every time I had a career change, I had to work my way higher. I didn't get any special treatment or any help elevating my position, nor did I expect it. If anything, in the business realm, I fought against men, especially white men, for my advancement, and I pulled teeth for my raises. I have worked my butt off for every achievement. Every single one. I've earned absolutely everything I've gotten through hard work and determination.

Why am I setting this stage? Enter my brother. He thought getting a college degree meant he was entitled to his career of choice. (He wants to be cop). He's older than many of the applicants, though, because he spent a ton of time in school not doing his homework and dropping classes. So when he applied for this job he was entitled to for no other reason than he finished school, and didn't get it, he figured it was only because of the economy. That's the only reason he wouldn't get something he applied for, right? 

He decided to give himself an edge by putting himself through the police academy. This was a wise choice. Police academies are hard and brutal, I will grant you. But a lot of people make it through. Within those people are women and non-white people who know that after the hard and brutal class, they will start a harder and more brutal process of getting a job, often getting passed up for...you guessed it, white males from good stock. 

My brother had no such thoughts. Now, three years later, he is still looking for a job in a competitive landscape because he pissed away his opportunities right out of the academy. How, you ask? He didn't study the interview process. He didn't practice. When a friend of mine set up a shoe-in for him, he canceled for some other plans of his and lost the spot. He's still interviewing, after having taken no responsbility for his lack-of-success thus far, and while he waits for the job to be handed to him, he is in a menial office job that pays virtually nothing. 

Can I tell you how many times I have told him the steps he should take to make more money in his current job, advance, or the ways he can leverage that job to get something else with a decent income while he interviews to become a cop? A lot. I've been there--I know how much effort it is to get ahead.

It all fell on deaf ears, so I gave up trying.  Last night, the guy had the audacity to say to me, "I deserve to get the job. Haven't I worked hard? I have. I've worked hard. What else can I do?? I deserve that job!"

I had to stop and stare for a moment.

Deserve to get the job? Hell, I've deserved a lot of jobs in my day. I've deserved a lot of raises, a lot of promotions, and I've absolutely deserved a lot more acknowledgment than I've gotten. I've been passed up for people like him, actually. You know what I did in that situation? Expected it and moved on. That's right--I saw a green, younger guy  kiss his boss' ass and get a promotion, making way more than me, without the experience to back it up, and had to just shrug and keep on working. That charm doesn't work for me--I don't have a penis and a WASP background. I have nothing in common with the white males in authority positions, and have never had a female boss. But you know what, that's life. I've never spent time dwelling on it. Or even thinking about the injustice of it. Women get paid less? Well, then I better get on my game and figure out how to make more, or I will be another statistic. And if minorities think any other way, they'll find themselves high and dry.

Of course, minorities all know this. They live it. They know the world isn't fair, and they also know that to keep from starving, they have to push through anyway. So to hear my brother talking about deserving something without doing more than just showing up to work, or showing up to an interview, I finally figured out what people talk about with white male self-entitlement. I'm not saying this is a general thing for all white males, but for some...oh my god. No words. No words to discribe how galling it is that someone just expects good things to be handed to him. And when they aren't, it's someone else's fault. 

I'm still flabbergasted. I'm not kidding. I've never even thought the words coming out of his mouth, let alone actually said them to someone. Crazy stuff.

Shadow Watcher & Passionate Bites RELEASE! Giveaway!

Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6) Shadow Watcher is live!!

Synopsis:

In the wake of ridding their territory of a menace, Sasha has only one pressing duty left: find more human magic workers. And while it is undoubtedly important on some grand scale, the task is, in itself, surprisingly uneventful. That is, until a strange predator takes an interest in her and Charles on their trek home one evening. In the space of twenty-four hours Sasha's life goes from mundane to being stalked and threatened. A new shifter has moved into town, and if the whispered rumors are true, something even more sinister is lurking behind, watching and waiting for the right moment to spring. 

But that isn't the only element that turns Sasha's life upside down. She has one hell of a secret that will change her and Stefan's life forever.

**This is one of two books requested by, and written for, the fans. 
Passionate Bites Boxed Set I am excited to be a part of a Paranormal Romance boxed set with eight other great authors! All of these are FULL LENGTH books, except for mine, which has Darkness 1 & 2 (both novellas equaling a full-length). 

What could be better?

It's only 99 cents!!

Snatch this bad-boy up, because it is only available for a limited time! Passionate Bites Giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

One of those weeks

It's just one of those weeks for me. One of those depressing weeks when you think the fates are stacked against you and you're stuck in a puddle of where you currently are. It's like I am standing still while my peers are racing ahead and capturing the prize. Work life (writing) is frought with unscalable mountains (in my head), and personal life is also in a dip. I'm just...meh. Whiny, I guess. Feeling sorry for myself. I need to get my head in the game, and I know that. I need to just forget what other people are doing, and focus on what I am doing. I need to be the turtle and know that if I keep plodding, I will catch up. That's always been my way: put my head down, do the best work I can, and keep momentum until I make it. And I know this. In the back of my head, I know that I will bounce back, put my back into it, and push harder. But right now, I'm just feeling a little depressed.

I sound like a doomsday speaker, don't I? An Eyore-type person moping around. Imagine that I just loudly groaned.

I hate when I feel like this. But we all do occasionally, don't we? Depressed. Like nothing is ever good enough. Like we just want to sob for no apparent reason.  "Down" periods. And this is a "down" period, definitely.

That thud was my head hitting the desk. 

Alas, time to trudge forward unto the breach dear friend. 

Works in Progress

Some people care what I'm working on. This could be for a number of reasons. The most obvious would be that you are eager to know what is coming out when. You can't eat, drink or sleep until you have a date for the release of XXX. When you do get that release date, you create one of those Xmas calendars with the daily chocolate. You wake up eagerly and rip open the homely image of me at the keyboard and scarf down the tiny morsel of second-tier chocolate so excited that you are one day closer.

Why did you have to make your own calendar?

While I might think I am as important as Christmas, I have to concede that nobody puts up lights on my birthday. Nobody exchanges presents with cheer--unless I make them--and nobody leaves cookies out for my midnight snack. In fact, if they were to leave anything out, it would probably be a diet plan.

So yes, you had to make your own. I admire your arts and crafts techniques.

Besides those who are extremely excited--who don't even exist in my imagination because no way could I believe people care about anything I do that much--the next set of people are mildly curious. They navigated past one of the "helpful" ranting reviews heralding one of my stories, got to the end of said story, and want to see when the next one is due out. Or the last in a series. Or just if I am coming up with anything new because I have bored them so far, and they are putting me to the test.

The third set are just bottom-line micro-managers. They might like a book or two, and they might want the next to come out, but they also want to make sure I am freaking working--or what are you getting paid for you slothery author???!

Did you know I make up words? I do. All the time. Slothery is my latest masterpiece. Sloth, which is lazy, needed a little bit more to fit in that spot. So I gave it an appendage. And because no one can leave a review at Amazon for this post, I'm totally leaving it. Boom!

Right. So for you groups of people who care, here is where I'm at as of today (10/14)

The Council (Darkness #5) has a final file edited and ready. It is being uploaded to the stores, is currently on preorder, and is due out Oct 30th.

Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6) is a book I wrote for the fans. That has just been edited and needs to go out to proof-readers. That is due out Nov 30th.

Jonas (Darkness #7) is the second book I wrote for the fans, and the end of the series (probably). That is with my final beta reader, will get editing as soon as she is done. That will probably be mid December to steer clear of Xmas and winter break. Or maybe just after Xmas. I'm not sure yet.

The Darkness Series boxed set will be released about a month or two weeks after the last Darkness. If you want one giant stack of reading, there you go.

Surviving Love will come shortly after the Darkness boxed set. That is a romance stand-alone

Bad grammar

Readers have certainly read books, especially indie books, with the misuse of words and spelling and grammar issues. I often hear readers chastise the author for these errors. People will leave ranting reviews, verbally abusing the author, because of this. They leave Facebook posts and tell you never to write again.

You would almost imagine these people didn't make a typo in that Facebook post, or that review. You would almost imagine these people always used correct grammar and spelling in everything they did, from work emails to notes. You would almost imagine their perfect use of the written word is what makes them so incredibly angry.

So let's break it down. Just because you can write a story, doesn't mean you are an expert in all things words. In fact, if authors were an expert in all things words, and if they could spot issues within their huge body of ideas and story, a huge army of editors would lose their jobs.

I should just take a moment to point out that I can't spell. Like...at all. When I wrote essays for school as a test, I had to dumb-down my vocabulary because I couldn't spell the larger words I knew. Apparently this is because of a deficiency when I was younger and learning to talk, but regardless, I am not even a weak speller--I just totally suck. And guess what, I maintained above a 4.0 throughout school (straight A's and honors classes). I'm no dummy, but spelling ain't my  bag, baby.

Plus, I went to school for business. I don't have a literature degree. I didn't sit with a bunch of linguistically intelligent people and discuss our love of punctuation. I was busy crunching numbers in my math class, or looking at peramids in art history (that is how I spelled pyramid-- I did not change it so you can see what words sound like in my head before I see the red line and then try to figure out how to properly spell it, like I did the second time I used it).  Aside from honors English, which is tearing apart written works and then writing essays about it, I didn't take any classes for higher-level writing and word appreciation. I went the math direction, instead.

Even if I did, though, I still wouldn't know how to spell. And grammar? I can only tell you what sounds right from years of reading. I had to look up what an adverb was--I kid you not. I know the basics, and I know what sounds good, but I am not a word-horse. I hate word games, I'm terrible at coming up with words if not in context, and I can only use a word in a sentence--I can't tell you what a word means without having to stop and think about it.

You know what else I do? I make shit up. I make up words all the time. I get a hazy idea of a word's meaning from reading it a few times, or just having it randomly stored in my brain from hearing it, and I fit it into context. Often I spell it wrong and have to then research the word, eventually finding what I am going for. But sometimes the word I am trying to use is similar in spelling to a completely different word. I use the wrong one. My beta readers then laugh at me and suggest what word I was probably going for.

Yes, my spelling and grammar is a joke among my beta readers, for good reason. I am a poster child for terrible spelling and grammar--I should wave a banner. Literally, I am probably the worst speller you know among college educated people. Yet, I have sold over 300,000 books in less than a year and a half.

So no, you don't need to know the rules in order to put a story down on paper. Those are different skill sets. But you DO need an editor and a few proofreaders to come in after you and point out all the words you made up. Or the wrong words you used. Or just the jumble of words you created in trying to get an idea down that sounded totally good in your head, and read like a dog created it.

So the next time you bash an author for spelling and grammar, don't tell them to stop writing. You might lose a lot of authors that way (if they listened to you, of course).  Instead, tell them they need to either hire an editor, get a new editor, or get a proofreader. Maybe even all three. That way, they won't feel inclined to point out the bad spelling and grammar in your review. Tee hee!

Moving Day. Again.

This is the third time I am moving my blog. First I had a free site with Wordpress. That was fine for the moment. I posted my books, let people know of new releases, and was limited in everything else. But when I started to gain some momentum, it had become clear that I'd overgrown that spot.

So I created a website. This website. I've re-done it a couple times as I figured out what I really wanted, and will continue to create things to do and look at while here, but I got all the basics down and now have a working situation. And here I had my blog.

The blog here was fine. It was a place to write things in my own little universe. That's really what a blog is, isn't it? But the problem was, I didn't really know if I wanted to be a blogger or not. Maybe I did. Maybe all my nuggets of useless info were like gold to others. Maybe my blog would become a metropolis of curious readers, wondering what I would say next. Really, who was to say?

Reality. Reality was to say. But I wasn't ready to listen to reality. And also, I didn't have a way to see if people were popping by to read about my mundane life. It's hard to acknowledge getting punched by reality without proof.

Well, that would never do.  My personality needs a bruise or something. Which meant, I needed some stats.

So, thought I, maybe I should move this portion of my operation to a blogger-type-blog. That's really legit, right? Bloggers go to Blogger to blog. Sounded good.

So the second move happened. I set up a lot of redundant info and heaved myself over to another spot in the cyber world. There I had reviews and random info and giveaways and all sorts of exciting things. I  had pages and whirlies and dirlies and everything. That actually was going fine, except I didn't love the background.


Then I got the great idea (because I am filled with random 'great' ideas) to start a website with all sorts of quizzes and games and what not. I would move my blog there and have a whole universe to play in. So I paid for that to be developed and thought I would keep this website as a summary type thing.

Redundant, much? Yes, yes it was. Also, my huge plans and grand decision didn't look as totally awesome as I wanted it to when it came to pass. Don't get me wrong, the designer made a lovely website, but it wasn't the shiny, beautiful thing my pea-brain was expecting. No dancing men jumped out and polished my shoes. Confetti didn't pop through my computer screen. Cute puppies didn't make me coffee and pay my bills. It was just...a website.

Which I already have.

So, that 'great' idea went about as good as all my 'great' ideas.

But, having more to do and play with is still a good idea (my good ideas are usually viable, whereas the great ones are not). And also, I had re-done this website myself, and really liked how it turned out.

And the blog move happens again. Back here. Where it was.

Yes, the second 'great' idea went the same as all the rest, as well.

I'll still do reviews and giveaways and what not, and the website will have more to interact with, and I'll only have one place to update.

I almost said it was a great idea. I think I'll refrain, because I don't want to have to move again. It's a bit silly.