V.R. Cumming's Blog, page 4

The New Vampire is now widely available!

The New Vampire (The Vampyr, Book 3) is now available for purchase outside of Amazon, at All Romance eBooks, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Inktera, and Kobo. It should be available soon through Smashwords. A paperback edition has also been released.

The individual episodes and the bonus short story "We All Fall Down" are no longer available for purchase on their own.

Review copies of The New Vampire should go out in the next few days. 

I'll begin serious work on the first draft of The Vampire's Favorite by this weekend and hope to have release news to y'all within the next two months.

Peace!

Save 25% on The Vampire's Pet at All Romance eBooks!

My publishing company was invited to participate in All Romance eBooks' Tax Day Sale (#AReBlast) on 15 April 2015. The only title I have published there under the V.R. Cumming pen name is The Vampire's Pet . If you've been waiting to read this one, now's a great time to pick it up. Just click on the banner below and you'll save 25% off the regular retail price of $3.99. Happy reading!

Cover Reveal: The Vampire's Favorite

Ok, ok, I couldn't wait... 

Here's the likely cover for The Vampire's Favorite , release date not yet set. (I'm still writing the first draft.) 

I say "likely" because the purple color fades and blurs at different sizes, so I may have to experiment until I get it right. Hopefully, nothing else will have to change, since I absolutely love the way this one turned out. 

Honestly? (And y'all always count on me to be honest, right?) I had hoped to have this one out in June. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in the first fourth of the book on a scene where...not nice things happen. It's been really difficult for me to get past that point. Eric and Jason aren't too happy about it either. ;)

I hope to have a better idea of what's going on by the end of April. Hang in there, Vampyr readers. This one's gonna deliver a bumpy ride...

The Vampire's Pet Bundle and Episodes

There's been a lot going on in the writerly household here lately. In addition to dealing with a cold/flu/something that will not go away, I've been hard at work writing stories for y'all. I'll have more news on that later, though, including (I hope) news soon on when y'all can expect The Vampire's Favorite to be released. I may even, maybe, have a cover for y'all in the next week or so. Keep your fingers crossed!

The big pieces of news for today are a couple of changes to The Vampire's Pet . The first is that the individual episodes are no longer available for purchase or borrow. Only the bundle is now available, but this is good, trust me. First, it cuts down on the number of book files I have to handle, which means I have more time for things like writing (always a plus when you're a writer). 

The other good news is that the digital edition of The Vampire's Pet is now available outside of Amazon at All Romance eBooks, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Inktera, and Kobo. 

I hope y'all's spring is lively and warm. Peace!

Review Copies of The New Vampire Bundle

Since The New Vampire bundle was released a couple of weeks ago, some of you are probably wondering why you haven't yet received a digital review copy of it. Two reasons. First, the Advance Review Team was formed primarily to review The Vampire's Favorite and The Master Vampire when they're released, hopefully later this year. I still intended to pass out review copies of The New Vampire, but I was hoping to do that in series order (after The Vampire's Favorite).

The other reason is more because of a contract in place on the individual episodes. Due to my agreement with Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon's e-publishing arm), I can't distribute digital copies of works enrolled in KDP's Kindle Select program. At the moment, that includes Episodes 2,3, and 5 of The New Vampire, plus "We All Fall Down," which is included in The New Vampire bundle. 

The last episode falls out of Select on 4 May. Once that happens, I'll try to send review copies out to readers on the ART.

Now Available: The New Vampire e-Bundle

The e-bundle of The New Vampire Series is now available on Amazon. The introductory price is $.99 (US). Sometime tomorrow (12 March, EDT), I'll be changing that to its regular retail price of $3.99. If you've been waiting for the bundle, now's a great time to get it.

Here's the description:
Gianna Logan had it all, a new family, a baby on the way, and a future as bright as a shooting star. She lost that life one spring night to the ruthless greed of a half-mad vampire. After months spent in a cage trying to regain her humanity, she awakens to the searing light, her memory threadbare, the shadows roiling through her mind, and the bond with her husbands broken.

As she slowly rediscovers herself, she must navigate the often treacherous world of the Vampyr, where nothing is ever as it seems. Under the glittering surface, war brews and the past Gianna thought long gone slithers into her life, claiming a part of her she thought never to have again. The biggest surprise awaiting her, though, isn't finding what was stolen from her, it's discovering just how far she'll go to get it back.

Work continues on The Vampire's Favorite . Look for more news on that soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading Gianna's story all in one go.

Peace and happy reading.

A Clarification on Short Stories

Yesterday, I mused that if readers dislike short stories, perhaps my writing time would be better spent on novels. I thought I should clarify that statement in light of other statements I've made encouraging readers to request specific stories.

In the future, I may not release shorter works to the public for sale. What I'm doing under my other pen name is releasing shorter stories only to newsletter subscribers. That way, if particular readers dislike shorter story forms, they simply don't have to read them and feel no obligation to buy them, either, simply because they're a fan of my stories. It's a win-win situation, as far as I can tell, for both me and readers. 

If this is the kind of direction you'd like me to take with the Vampyr stories, don't hesitate to let me know. I am always open to reader feedback, whether it takes the form of an honest review (and trust me, I appreciate those no matter what's said) or the form of an e-mail. 

News

The past month or so has been a busy one for my family. One of my cousins (raised by my parents) became a parent for the first time in the wee hours of this morning. The baby decided to make his appearance a month early, but he's healthy and hale, and truly adorable. Nope, I'm not a bit biased!

I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians. We get snow, don't get me wrong, but we usually don't get a lot of it. This past week, we had about eight inches dumped on top of us in one night. Most of the roads were perfectly passable, so of course we got out and drove around in it. The picture on the left was taken during our outing. It's of an historical home near where i live. Unfortunately, most of the snow had already melted before we actually got out that way, but it's still a pretty sight.

Book-wise, things are hopping. I'm on the tail end of re-editing the first novel I ever published (under another pen name). It's consuming much more time than I thought it would and eating into my writing time. I'm still working on Jason's story, albeit more slowly than I had hoped. No news yet on whether it will be released as a single novel or in episodes.

I just heard from the lady who designed the cover for the e-bundle/print version of The Vampire's Pet . She's agreed to design the cover for the e-bundle/print version of The New Vampire . I've already started formatting it, so hopefully it'll be in your hands by mid-April.

Very few people participated in the poll I had on the home page of the website, but the consensus seems to favor werewolves as characters in future stories. Does this mean Darien will definitely get his own tale? Maybe, maybe not. That all depends on the direction I decide to go after The Master Vampire is released. Right now, the only two books I have on my writing schedule for this pen name are TMV and The Vampire's Favorite , my current work in progress. 

The most scathing comments I receive on the Vampyr books seem to be directed toward their length, the review calling TVP a novel where everyone is raped/rapes someone excepted. That leaves me very hesitant to write and release additional short stories set in the world of the Vampyr. I'd love to explore the stories of other characters, like Alice and Gregory, but if readers don't enjoy shorter works, perhaps my time would be better spent elsewhere (i.e. on full-length novels, such as Darien's story). If you'd like to weigh in on this topic (or any other!), don't hesitate to contact me. 

We Have a Winner!

The winner of the Valentine's Day giveaway is D.L. I'll be mailing those books out to you on the first business day of the coming week. Thank you to everyone who participated! Stay tuned for more news on upcoming releases, sales, and giveaways.

Valentine's Day Giveaway!

To celebrate the month of love, lust, and romance, I'm giving away print editions of three books to one winner:

A signed, print edition of The Vampire's Pet (the complete series); A print edition of Red Hot Touch: A Head-to-Toe Handbook for Mind-Blowing Orgasms by Jaiya and John Hanauer with Julie Jeffries;  And a print edition of The Illustrated Kama Sutra: The Classic Easter Love Texts translated by Sir Richard Burton and F. E. Arbuthnot.

I use Red Hot Touch in research (yes, really) and can attest to its awesomeness; and, of course, the Kama Sutra really is the classic text on sex and love.

To enter, do one or all of the options below. Good luck to you all!

P.S. It just occurred to me that there might be non-US residents interested in entering. Please do! As long as the US Post Office can get it to your country, I will be happy to ship these books to you, even if you live outside the US. a Rafflecopter giveaway