Stella Wilkinson's Blog, page 11

Cover Reveal for the next Something... book

Dear readers
As some of  you know, I collated and edited a collection of short stories for charity, written both by myself and other authors, which we called Something to Read on the Ride.

We are now releasing a second book in the same vein. This one is called: Something for the Journey

The books are intended to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, which is a Children's Hospital Charity. It's such a tough time of year to have your child in hospital, some of them needed cancer treatments even on Christmas Day, so I do hope you'll take a look at the book when it comes out.

It is a collection of 27 short stories, all designed to be a bite sized read for commuter journeys and other short trips. The themes are as varied as the authors, and cover sci-fi, comedy, horror, romance, and many other genres too. All the authors donated their stories free of charge to help raise funds.

We hope to have it released before Christmas and I will post again with more details when we do, but in the meantime I thought I'd share our fantastic cover, kindly donated and designed by the talented Gayle Ramage of Cover D, you can check out her website for great pre-mades at: http://coverd.wix.com/premadecovers

The Flirting Games - Extended!

Hi all
I noticed that on Goodreads several reviews said they loved The Flirting Games but wished it could have been longer...
Well, I listened!
I figured they were right, that maybe it ended too abruptly and that Ellie and Nate getting together happened too easily. So.... I added four extra chapters.
I just wanted to let you all know so that you could go back and get the updated longer version and hopefully love it even more ;-)

And of course, it is still FREE!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C14KSH8
(US Edition)
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C14KSH8
(UK Edition)
   
I'd love to know if you enjoyed the extra storyline.
Stella x

Cover Reveal for Werewolf Magic & Mayhem

Dear Readers
I'm planning to have Werewolf Magic and Mayhem (the sequel to Halloween Magic and Mayhem) ready to publish in just over a week, so I decided that it was time to get the cover finalised, and here is the final result! I would love your thoughts on it.





Halloween Magic and Mayhem is currently available on Amazon for just 99c http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494287544/

A Sequel to Halloween Magic & Mayhem

Following on from the terrific sales of Halloween Magic and Mayhem, which I only wrote as a bit of fun for Halloween, I have bowed to your many requests and will write a sequel! (and thank you, thank you for the lovely comments about it)

I've started it and should have it finished by end of November (fingers crossed), so watch this space for a cover reveal and release details.

Book 1, available on Amazon only just now:

A Field Guide To PROCRASTINATORS

A sexy short story (Warning, contains an adult theme)

The Angel and The Demon
They were here to compete for my soul. The beautiful buff angel and the dark and dangerous demon.They stood either side of my hospital bed; time had been stopped in my last moments, on pause until I made a decision.I was only twenty-four, but the car that hit me had been speeding, and I hadn’t stood a chance. My family were there, a still-life tableau gathered round my bed. It was kind of nice to have time to look at them and I was spinning it out. Because first the angel and the demon had to convince me which way to go.The angel was bare-chested, and could have been sculpted by Michael Angelo himself. His blond hair was swept off his face in waves, his eyes were crystal blue and his lips a full red. His square jaw and chiselled cheekbones would have made De Vinci weep. His chest was bronzed and his muscles rippled begging to be touched. His shoulders were broad, and huge white feathery wings broke out on each side, soft and graceful as a swan’s neck. His tight white trousers left nothing to the imagination and he radiated hunky goodness.The decision should have been easy, right?Wrong. There wasn’t only me to think about, the demon made me promises, the angel offered me nothing but unlimited years of saving other souls. There was no heaven or hell on the table. Simply a choice of working for good or for evil. The demon only asked for limited time and then I could make the choice again, as often as I wanted.I know my family would never want to see me in hell, they wouldn’t want me to make any deal that resulted in an eternity of damnation, but that wasn’t the choice. It was a sliding bargain that the demon offered. Ten years of years of servitude to evil in return for protection for my family. Ten years of mixing things up on earth, would spare my parents pain from my passing, another ten would guarantee the safety of my younger brother for his whole life. He would never get sick, or have an accident, he would live a long and healthy life. You see, evil doesn’t make offers it knows you will automatically refuse. Evil is tempting, oh so very tempting. What was a twenty years? Nothing! Compared to the sixty or so years I could potentially give Simon. It was another ten to do the same for Charlotte, my older sister. I was more hesitant about that deal. But the demon was smart; he let the offer hang in the air whilst he talked to me about what we could do together to influence the world towards the dark side. The fun we could have, and how we could spend our free time. The books I could read, the films I could see, there was no catch, the decision would always be mine if I wanted to change my path at any time I could, but he seemed confident I wouldn’t want to.It seemed my soul in particular was in demand.The angel crossed his arms over his chest in disapproval that I was even listening.Eventually he could take no more uncertainty.He put his hand on my forehead and eased some of the pain he found there.“Bethany, you are a good person, I would not be here if you were not. You must not listen to evil.”“If I’m such a good person, then why is he even here?” I gestured to the demon.The angel sighed. “It is true you have never chosen one path over the other. Your soul has always hung in the balance. Why is that Bethany? How do you resist the light and the joy?”The angel actually looked confused.It was true; I’m generally a very nice person. I pay my taxes, I give to charity, I give up my seat on the bus to strangers. I’m kind to animals and I love children.But I had a weakness.“What’s your name?” I asked the angel.“Darriel.” He smiled proudly.“Let me ask you why they sent you in particular Darriel? Take a good look at yourself in a mirror and ask why they might have chosen you to sway the balance for the good guys.”The demon laughed at my words. He already knew the answer.The angel put his head on one side and looked at me thoughtfully. Then, making a decision, he walked over to the full-length mirror at one end of my room.“Oh!” His refection even took his own breath away. He was quite simply magnificent.“So, are you part of the deal or what?” I asked.“Yes.” The angel nodded, finally realising what I was getting at. “I will be with you always. Together we can seek out evil and right wrongs. I am here to guide you in your training.”“Why me? Why would I be trained to influence other souls?” I couldn’t understand why they were both so keen on recruiting me.“Because you understand temptation, Bethany. You have travelled the middle path most of your adult life. You know how hard it is to be selfless and make sacrifices, but you have not always done so.” He frowned at me; he was definitely not pleased by some of my choices. I shrugged.“You could do great good, Bethany. Together we could turn many souls from evil, we could save them!”“And how long would I get you as my mentor? Are you a perk of the job?” I knew it was a cheeky question to ask an angel, but that was why he was here, to help me decide.It seemed pretty clear to me that the good guys were trying to exploit my one weakness. I couldn’t think of any other area of my life where I might have ‘walked a middle path’, but where men were concerned, yes I had.Had I had meaningless one night stands driven only by lust? Yes I had.Had I slept with my best friend’s boyfriend? Yes, I had. Had I slept with my ex-boyfriend the night before his wedding? Yup, twice, and once again in the morning. Had I slept with my sister’s husband? Uh oh, very nearly almost; everything else but. Had I even accepted money in exchange for my favours, yes, and why not? It had seemed fun at the time. Being paid for my own pleasure.I was a good girl all week but come the weekend, I was a bad girl in a short skirt. I deserved a couple of the names I had been called in the past, though I was generally pretty discrete.I had a dodgy relationship with drink on a Saturday night, but a very good relationship with my libido. We always woke up happy on a Sunday, if a little bit hung over.So the good guys had done their homework and sent Mr ‘buff and beautiful’ to train me and lecture me. And I was very tempted; the dark side in me enjoyed breaking a good man. I loved that he was so righteous, he would be a wonderful challenge, and I would take pleasure in every second of teasing him even if I never got anywhere at all.If I could re-evaluate my choice any time I wanted, then I didn’t have to be evil forever. Of course, I’ve seen the movies, and I know that they don’t ever let you go once they have you, but it would surely not be impossible.The offers the demon had made for my family would eventually fail to tempt me. How long would it take before everyone I cared about was guaranteed safe? Fifty years of my time perhaps? And one day all my family would be dead and gone. So how would the bad guys convince me to stay with them? Simple. They had sent the perfect demon. The devil had done his homework too.I turned to him, “What’s your name?”“Calefor,” He answered, “Want meto go look in the mirror too?”I shook my head. “I have a feeling you already know exactly how you look to me.”He looked like a librarian. He was on the skinny side and a good foot shorter than the angel. He was wearing a rumpled tweed suit, and in his top pocket was a fountain pen that had leaked a large ink stain through the thick tweed. He had scruffy black hair that needed a cut and geek glasses that sat on his slightly crooked nose. But his chocolate brown eyes gleamed with intelligent wickedness. On the end of my bed he had dumped a copy of War and Peace and a railway timetable. If I hadn’t been lying down and dying then my libido would have thrown him down on the bed already.The angel was stunning. But if he hoped to spend eternity with me on my best behaviour then he wasn’t stunning enough. Looks didn’t do it for me. I was a sucker for the clever ones, the nerds were my hunting ground. If my decision was going to be based on looks alone then this angel could never seduce me to his side.I took one last loving glance at my family. Obviously I would do anything to protect them, even take the path of evil on a temporary basis, if it was my only choice.But my decision was based on the one driving force in my life. I’d made it a long time ago.“When do we start, and how soon can I get you out of that sinfully sexy suit?” I asked the gorgeous geek.

A sexy short story

The Angel and The Demon
They were here to compete for my soul. The beautiful buff angel and the dark and dangerous demon.They stood either side of my hospital bed; time had been stopped in my last moments, on pause until I made a decision.I was only twenty-four, but the car that hit me had been speeding, and I hadn’t stood a chance. My family were there, a still-life tableau gathered round my bed. It was kind of nice to have time to look at them and I was spinning it out. Because first the angel and the demon had to convince me which way to go.The angel was bare-chested, and could have been sculpted by Michael Angelo himself. His blond hair was swept off his face in waves, his eyes were crystal blue and his lips a full red. His square jaw and chiselled cheekbones would have made De Vinci weep. His chest was bronzed and his muscles rippled begging to be touched. His shoulders were broad, and huge white feathery wings broke out on each side, soft and graceful as a swan’s neck. His tight white trousers left nothing to the imagination and he radiated hunky goodness.The decision should have been easy, right?Wrong. There wasn’t only me to think about, the demon made me promises, the angel offered me nothing but unlimited years of saving other souls. There was no heaven or hell on the table. Simply a choice of working for good or for evil. The demon only asked for limited time and then I could make the choice again, as often as I wanted.I know my family would never want to see me in hell, they wouldn’t want me to make any deal that resulted in an eternity of damnation, but that wasn’t the choice. It was a sliding bargain that the demon offered. Ten years of years of servitude to evil in return for protection for my family. Ten years of mixing things up on earth, would spare my parents pain from my passing, another ten would guarantee the safety of my younger brother for his whole life. He would never get sick, or have an accident, he would live a long and healthy life. You see, evil doesn’t make offers it knows you will automatically refuse. Evil is tempting, oh so very tempting. What was a twenty years? Nothing! Compared to the sixty or so years I could potentially give Simon. It was another ten to do the same for Charlotte, my older sister. I was more hesitant about that deal. But the demon was smart; he let the offer hang in the air whilst he talked to me about what we could do together to influence the world towards the dark side. The fun we could have, and how we could spend our free time. The books I could read, the films I could see, there was no catch, the decision would always be mine if I wanted to change my path at any time I could, but he seemed confident I wouldn’t want to.It seemed my soul in particular was in demand.The angel crossed his arms over his chest in disapproval that I was even listening.Eventually he could take no more uncertainty.He put his hand on my forehead and eased some of the pain he found there.“Bethany, you are a good person, I would not be here if you were not. You must not listen to evil.”“If I’m such a good person, then why is he even here?” I gestured to the demon.The angel sighed. “It is true you have never chosen one path over the other. Your soul has always hung in the balance. Why is that Bethany? How do you resist the light and the joy?”The angel actually looked confused.It was true; I’m generally a very nice person. I pay my taxes, I give to charity, I give up my seat on the bus to strangers. I’m kind to animals and I love children.But I had a weakness.“What’s your name?” I asked the angel.“Darriel.” He smiled proudly.“Let me ask you why they sent you in particular Darriel? Take a good look at yourself in a mirror and ask why they might have chosen you to sway the balance for the good guys.”The demon laughed at my words. He already knew the answer.The angel put his head on one side and looked at me thoughtfully. Then, making a decision, he walked over to the full-length mirror at one end of my room.“Oh!” His refection even took his own breath away. He was quite simply magnificent.“So, are you part of the deal or what?” I asked.“Yes.” The angel nodded, finally realising what I was getting at. “I will be with you always. Together we can seek out evil and right wrongs. I am here to guide you in your training.”“Why me? Why would I be trained to influence other souls?” I couldn’t understand why they were both so keen on recruiting me.“Because you understand temptation, Bethany. You have travelled the middle path most of your adult life. You know how hard it is to be selfless and make sacrifices, but you have not always done so.” He frowned at me; he was definitely not pleased by some of my choices. I shrugged.“You could do great good, Bethany. Together we could turn many souls from evil, we could save them!”“And how long would I get you as my mentor? Are you a perk of the job?” I knew it was a cheeky question to ask an angel, but that was why he was here, to help me decide.It seemed pretty clear to me that the good guys were trying to exploit my one weakness. I couldn’t think of any other area of my life where I might have ‘walked a middle path’, but where men were concerned, yes I had.Had I had meaningless one night stands driven only by lust? Yes I had.Had I slept with my best friend’s boyfriend? Yes, I had. Had I slept with my ex-boyfriend the night before his wedding? Yup, twice, and once again in the morning. Had I slept with my sister’s husband? Uh oh, very nearly almost; everything else but. Had I even accepted money in exchange for my favours, yes, and why not? It had seemed fun at the time. Being paid for my own pleasure.I was a good girl all week but come the weekend, I was a bad girl in a short skirt.I had a dodgy relationship with drink on a Saturday night, but a very good relationship with my libido. We always woke up happy on a Sunday, if a little bit hung over.So the good guys had done their homework and sent Mr ‘buff and beautiful’ to train me and lecture me. And I was very tempted; the dark side in me enjoyed breaking a good man. I loved that he was so righteous, he would be a wonderful challenge, and I would take pleasure in every second of teasing him even if I never got anywhere at all.
If I could re-evaluate my choice any time I wanted, then I didn’t have to be evil forever. Of course, I’ve seen the movies, and I know that they don’t ever let you go once they have you, but it would surely not be impossible.The offers the demon had made for my family would eventually fail to tempt me. How long would it take before everyone I cared about was guaranteed safe? Fifty years of my time perhaps? And one day all my family would be dead and gone. So how would the bad guys convince me to stay with them? Simple. They had sent the perfect demon. The devil had done his homework too.I turned to him, “What’s your name?”“Calefor,” He answered, “Want meto go look in the mirror too?”I shook my head. “I have a feeling you already know exactly how you look to me.”He looked like a librarian. He was on the skinny side and a good foot shorter than the angel. He was wearing a rumpled tweed suit, and in his top pocket was a fountain pen that had leaked a large ink stain through the thick tweed. He had scruffy black hair that needed a cut and geek glasses that sat on his slightly crooked nose. But his chocolate brown eyes gleamed with intelligent wickedness. On the end of my bed he had dumped a copy of War and Peace and a railway timetable. If I hadn’t been lying down and dying then my libido would have thrown him down on the bed already.The angel was stunning. But if he hoped to spend eternity with me on my best behaviour then he wasn’t stunning enough. Looks didn’t do it for me. I was a sucker for the clever ones, the nerds were my hunting ground. If my decision was going to be based on looks alone then this angel could never seduce me to his side.I took one last loving glance at my family. Obviously I would do anything to protect them, even take the path of evil on a temporary basis, if it was my only choice.But my decision was based on the one driving force in my life. I’d made it a long time ago.“When do we start, and how soon can I get you out of that sinfully sexy suit?” I asked the gorgeous geek.

Can you donate a short story?

Hi all
A new anthology is looking for stories. If you have some spare short stories in the hard drive then here is a chance to do something worthy with them, or write one especially for the anthology!
Basic details:
The good cause is Wallace and Gromits Grand Appeal, which is a children's hospital charity. They do so many different things to help sick children, you can check it out here if you wanted http://www.grandappeal.org.uk/
So obviously no one gets paid for their stories but you do get a marketing opportunity as each writer can add a tag line and a link to their other work at the bottom of their story if they want to.

The name of the anthology is “Something For The Journey” which is the second book of an intended trilogy of story collections with the endgame being an omnibus with all proceeds going to the charity. There is the possibility of an annual franchise series and every book is open to all writers so there are multiple opportunities to be seen.  Everyone is encouraged to mention the book on their facebook and webpage as well as tweet the news so that, in theory, we cover a good deal of ground.

“Something To Read On The Ride”, the first book, is now on sale in paperback and kindle if you want to get a feel for what’s needed. The target audience is anyone in the world who likes to read while waiting for or riding on a train, bus or a cab to or from work. That’s potentially millions of readers from kindle alone! Now it's a known fact that anthologies don't sell as well as novels but we're still talking hundreds of thousands of short story fans out there eager to read YOUR stories.

The rules are simple.
 1 All writers agree that Stella Wilkinson is the editor and has final word on all entries.
2  Stories to be roughly around 1,000 words, though a bit more or less is fine.
3 Any topic and any genre is accepted, though nothing too violent or erotic as it must have mass appeal.
4  Email submissions directly to me as a Word attachment to: swilkinsonauthor@gmail.com  Any questions please do ask!
5  If you happen to have two stories please send them but just one each is fine.
6 There is room for a few excerpts from novels in progress as long as they are self contained though short stories are best.
7  While everyone will retain all rights to their stories, we’d appreciate it if you allow it to be exclusive to the anthology for at least six months before submitting it elsewhere- where of course you’ll need to let the new publication know it is a reprinted work.
8 NOTHING can be already published on your blog or webpage or even a critique group or as a first story/prequel reader enticement for a series.

 Deadline is December 11, 2013 so start typing!
Any questions please do ask!
Stella Wilkinson

Something to Read on the Ride

New Book Release: Something to Read on the Ride : A Charity Anthology.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G9I8K5E (US)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G9I8K5E (UK)

Dear reader, I've donated two stories to this anthology. It's only 2.99 and 100% of the proceeds go to a really worthy children's charity.

An excellent collection of short stories aimed at those who have only a limited amount of time to read on their journey. This book is a Charity Anthology, to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, A Children's Hospital Charity.

Suitable for all adult readers from 18 - 80. This book covers a large range of subjects, from space travel to zombies, romance, humour and tragedy, and from unusual occurrences to every day situations. Stories were donated by a wide variety of authors, all with very different styles, so there is plenty for everybody.

Authors: Neil Bursnoll, Samuel Clements, Andrew Vu, Amanda Brice, Stella Wilkinson, Neil Sweetman, L.G. Castillo, Landon Porter, Debbie Bennett, Frank Zubek, Pru Moran, Louis Hessey-Antell, Dan Brady, J. David Core, Monica La Porta, Paul B. Kohler, Dan Fiorella, Ruth Banda-Banda, Penny Darling, James Griffiths and Pauline Drummie.

Good @ Games

Which of these three boys takes your fancy?

The Good, The Bad or the Fantasy?

Jessica Chase has her hands full. Determined to keep her head down at her new school and concentrate on staying out of trouble this time, she finds herself constantly distracted by her feelings for not one, not two, but three totally different boys.

The Good Boy: The gorgeous geek, assigned to help Jessica catch up in class. He's clever and yet he doesn't know how handsome he is.

The Bad Boy: Dark and dangerously easy to fall for, Jessica tries to steer well clear, but being constantly thrown together makes it tough to keep away from temptation

The Fantasy: After receiving an internal school email meant for someone else, Jessica starts to chat with the sender, he seems like the perfect boy, funny, smart and clearly confident, Jessica begins to wonder if he can really be so perfect or if he should stay a fantasy,


Hi lovely readers, as you can see I'm getting stuck into writing another book. But I truly haven't worked out the ending yet! I genuinely haven't decided which way Jessica should go... Which boy would you want?