Gayla Twist's Blog, page 3

Upcoming Title

The wonderful story that I've been working on with Ted Naifeh is getting close to done. One of the bonuses of working with Ted is that he's a brilliant illustrator and therefore I anticipate a great cover. He's the man behind this cover for my good twin, Adrianne Ambrose:

Confessions of a Virgin Sacrifice

(Okay - I meant to put the actually image here rather than the link, but can't find it. Probably on my computer that crashed. !@#%#^!&*!^@#!!!)

Anyway, Ted is working on preliminary sketches and here's the first thing he roughed out:

[image error]

Sexy Boys - Hot Covers - Vampires

Do you enjoy stories with handsome young men doing heroic things? Do you enjoy stories about vampires? Do you enjoy stories with some hot vampires and some not?

(Okay - these questions are starting to get a little random - Anyway...)

The Urchin: Plague of Vampires has a new, super hot cover. I absolutely love it. (Loved the old one too, but this has more of a "Meow" factor.)

To celebrate the launch of this new sizzle, The Urchin: Plague of Vampires is on #SALE on Amazon Kindle for only 99 cents. (Good value, if I do say so myself.) Check it out:

Live Entertainment

My husband and I were out to dinner the other night. We were half way through our meal when a couple was seated next to us. My first impression was that it was early on in their dating life and they were excited to see each other again, but not intimate yet. His conversation starter for the evening was, "Which sports teams do you follow?" (Seriously? That's your go to second date question?) She said that she didn't really follow sports and only watched a game when she was invited to a party for the Super Bowl or such. Undaunted, he followed that up with, "Well, what sports did you play in high school?" She admitted that she didn't play any sports in high school. He persisted with, "Then what sports did you play as a kid?" The poor girl had to confess that she'd never played any sports. She had some kind of vision problem when she was a child and had to wear an eye patch. A ton of kids made fun of her so the doctor suggested she wear a sticker over the eye patch to make it cool. You could tell it was a childhood trauma for her and she was feeling really nervous because she just kept going on and on about the eye patch and he just kept becoming less and less enthusiastic about the date.

Suddenly I felt like I was watching a live version of The Mindy Project and I just wanted to shout at her, "Stop talking about the eye patch!" And I also wanted to yell at him about his weird sports obsession. Ask out a man if you want to talk sports all night.

As we walked home, I brought up the couple's conversation to my husband. He said, "I thought the whole eye patch thing was kind of endearing." And that's why I married him.

The Unfinished Song (Book 1): Initiate by Tara Maya

Here's a fun title if you're looking for a new fantasy author to read:


BLURBDEADLY INITIATION
A DETERMINED GIRL...Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.

AN EXILED WARRIOR...Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don't kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father's wars and his mother's curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her... assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.

EXCERPTBlue-skinned rusalki grappled Dindi under the churning surface of the river. She could feel their claws dig into her arms. Their riverweed-like hair entangled her legs when she tried to kick back to the surface. She only managed to gulp a few breaths of air before they pulled her under again.
She hadn't appreciated how fast and deep the river was. On her second gasp for air, she saw that the current was already dragging her out of sight of the screaming girls on the bank. A whirlpool of froth and fae roiled between two large rocks in the middle of the river. The rusalka and her sisters tugged Dindi toward it. Other water fae joined the rusalki. Long snouted pookas, turtle-like kappas and hairy-armed gwyllions all swam around her, leading her to the whirlpool, where even more fae swirled in the whitewater.
"Join our circle, Dindi!" the fae voices gurgled under the water. "Dance with us forever!"
"No!" She kicked and swam and stole another gasp for air before they snagged her again. There were so many of them now, all pulling her down, all singing to the tune of the rushing river. She tried to shout, "Dispel!" but swallowed water instead. Her head hit a rock, disorienting her. She sank, this time sure she wouldn't be coming up again.
"Dispel!" It was a man's voice.
Strong arms encircled her and lifted her until her arms and head broke the surface. Her rescuer swam with her toward the shore. He overpowered the current, he shrugged aside the hands of the water faeries stroking his hair and arms. When he reached the shallows, he scooped Dindi into his arms and carried her the rest of the way to the grassy bank. He set her down gently.
She coughed out some water while he supported her back.
"Better?" he asked.
She nodded. He was young--only a few years older than she. The aura of confidence and competence he radiated made him seem older. Without knowing quite why, she was certain he was a Tavaedi.
"Good." He had a gorgeous smile. A wisp of his dark bangs dangled over one eye. He brushed his dripping hair back over his head.
Dindi's hand touched skin--he was not wearing any shirt. Both of them were sopping wet. On him, that meant trickles of water coursed over a bedrock of muscle. As for her, the thin white wrap clung transparently to her body like a wet leaf. She blushed.
"It might have been easier to swim if you had let go of that," he teased. He touched her hand, which was closed around something. "What were you holding onto so tightly that it mattered more than drowning?"

LINKSTara’s blog http://bit.ly/12dFdNyTara’s Twitter http://bit.ly/162sCtEThe Unfinished Song on Facebook http://on.fb.me/1400mMqAmazon http://amzn.to/15ciwYcBarnes and Noble http://bit.ly/13yM5DrKobo http://bit.ly/1aFhg1PiTunes http://bit.ly/1baddhNSmashwords http://bit.ly/17zK8Xn

Initiate is free everywhere except on Barnes and Noble (where it’s $0.99). You can download a free .epub version via Smashwords.

Heart of the Vampire - Soft Launch

Heart of the Vampire (book 2 in the Vanderlind Castle series) has launched!

Yes, it's a few days ahead of schedule. I inadvertently launched early by becoming too proficient on the Kindle/CreateSpace websites. But sales are already coming in and I'm feeling pretty darn pleased in general.

The fantastic ladies over at Sizzle and Swoon did a cover reveal a few days ago and now I will do one of my own. Voila (been practicing my French lately) :


If you're thinking, "Yes, I want that book immediately," then go here to sink your fangs into an electronic copy now:

Kindle

If you'd prefer your reading to be a bit more tangible, then here's how to get Heart of the Vampire in paperback:

Amazon

xo~ GT

Heart of the Vampire to launch July 10th

Yes, it's true. There was one of the minor levels of hell and some knee deep high water to survive, but nothing too disastrous, all things considered. The hard drive on my computer melting was not a fun moment, but thems the breaks. I was the fool who thought I didn't have to back things up on a six month old computer.

The good news is Heart of the Vampire turned out super cute, if I do say so myself. And it's 50% longer than Call of the Vampire. More fang for your buck. (Yay, puns!)

The fabulous people over at Sizzle and Swoon are doing a cover reveal on Friday. Fun! And the book should be ready on Wednesday July 10th, (if not a day earlier depending on Amazon and my ability to format.)

Anyway, I think it turned out well and I'm excited to find out what you think. Fabulous you. <3

A bit punchy off of 4rth of July BBQ. (To you United Stateiens out there, Happy 4rth!)

xo~ Gayla

Taylor Swift and the Raccoon

Here is part of a text conversation with my brother:

Brother: Raccoon ate a chicken. Trapped it the next day.

Me: Did the kids freak?

Brother: No, they took it in stride. It wasn't their favorite that likes to be held, Taylor Swift. They were a little more upset that I killed the raccoon until I explained he was coming back to get Taylor Swift.

My favorite review so far

Call of the Vampire has received quite a few reviews at this point ~ mostly good, some medium and some bad. But, my favorite review so far has got to be this:

"I haven't read this book." One star.

I'm not sure why but this really amuses me. Must be getting strange as I age.

Now, back to writing so I can pen another book for the reviewer not to read. ;)

Delays and Excuses

How did it get to be the first of June? I am so not ready for June. So many things happening and I have to get Heart of the Vampire out. I think I have to just realize that my self-imposed July 1st deadline for book two of the Vanderlind Castle series just isn't going to happen.

"Why not?" you might ask.

Well, three reasons:

1) I had that plot hiccup that got me off track for a bit. Had to do a rewrite and that sucked up time.

2) Tiny Size dropped her second nap of the day so that really gouged into my writing time.

3) Heart of the Vampire's plot is more complex than I realized. It's going to end up being about 20K more words than Call of the Vampire. So, you get more story, but you have to wait for it. Sorry about that.

(For those still interested, Fate of the Vampire, the last book in the trilogy, is going to be even longer than the first two. I will pack in the action and try to tie up all loose ends to everyone's satisfaction.)

"So Gayla," you might be thinking, "what are you trying to tell us? Give it to us straight. What's the big picture?"

The big picture is that I will probably be late on my launch of Call of the Vampire. I'm thinking mid-July instead of the first of July. I'm sorry about this, but in exchange you're getting a longer story, so I hope that's helpful.

xo~ Gayla

Heart of the Vampire - Update

We're down to polishing Heart of the Vampire and I must say I'm very pleased. There's tweaking to be done, but I feel like the plot is tight and doesn't need any major alterations at this point. It's interesting writing a sequel because you have to find a balance of reviewing what happened in book one, but not completely retelling that story. Tricky. I'm assuming that most people who read Heart will have read Call, but that doesn't mean they've read Call super recently, and have probably read numerous books in between, so a memory refresher I'm sure is necessary. I hope I've done a good job.

~Gayla