Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 118

True story about me and Lynn Viehl

This is a tweet from last night...

from me:

@SpazP I see I've successfully created another Darkyn addict. Some of the best (if not THE best) vampires ever.

her response:

 @shilohwalker SRSLY!! I'm starting the 3rd book as soon as I can! Thesea re sooooo my kinda books

Yes. I think one of my life's missions is to convert as many people as possible into Viehl addicts. Stardoc. Darkyn. The Gena Hale/Jessica Hall books. All of them. Because they are awesome and nobody writes like her.

So...have I converted you yet? If not...step into my parlor...(or her parlor)...whichever.  Just try her.  This is a good one to start with.

 

Street Team

So, I originally planned on doing this through my newsletter, but logistically, I don't think it will work.

Also... my newsletter had a FUBAR moment and those who were originally set up to be on my street team?  They are no longer listed correctly, so if you were set up to be on there? And you still wanna be?  Info down below from the notice that went out to those who managed to survive the fubar thing with the newsletter.

 

You're receiving this because you signed up to be on my street team-which is basically helping get the word out about my books.

I've decided it will be easier to discuss and bounce ideas around via a yahoo group.

If you are interested in joining, please visit

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShilohWalkerStreetTeam/

and request to join.  You will need a yahoo ID to join, but this will not be overly active group.

There may be periods of activity when I'm doing promo for upcoming releases, etc. However, I don't expect it to be too chatty.

All street team announcements and work will be coordinated through the yahoo list so if you are interested, you will need to join the yahoo group.

Please be aware anybody who joins the street team will be asked to help spread the word about upcoming releases, etc.

In exchange, there will be opportunities for early reads on select books or other perks, but only for those who are willing to help get the word out about books.

Due to increased postal costs and other costs, I do ask that only those interested and willing to help join the group.

The perks will only be offered to those who are able to meet the obligations.

Examples of what may be asked include passing out bookmarks, blogging about upcoming releases, etc.

If that is you, please follow the above link and request an invite. It will ask for a reason why you to join.  If you blog, please include a link to your blog.  If you're not an active blogger, then let me know what else you'd be interested in doing to spread the word about my books.

Saturday Snippets…Club & Party Scene

Well, they are just outside a bar...and it's a Hunter's sort of party. Where bad & bloody things happen. Sigh. Going to miss this world.

A faint smile curved the lush pink of her mouth, left him wondering what she was thinking. Then somebody came tumbling out of the bar next to her, spilling bright lights of blue and red onto the sidewalk, andToronto had a better idea.

As the rainbow of lights flickered off the blade she'd concealed in her left hand, he studied the crush of people around them. It wasn't as crowded here as it was just a few streets over on Beale, but it was still crowded enough.

Not the ideal place for a fight. He'd done it before and managed to avoid human casualties, but he suspected that Sylvia James was a different breed from what he was used to. Ferals fought to live, so they could kill—by nature, most of them weren't always clearheaded. Sylvia, like him, was a trained killer. She would be clearheaded. It would make a difference.

He hunted the ferals.

She hunted for money.

In the end, he'd win, because he was stronger.

But he didn't want to have to fight her. He wanted to have sex with her—down and dirty sex, maybe up against a wall, in the light so he could watch her. Then on a bed, her body under his, or over . . . his hands tangled in that dark, silken hair.

"You know, most men would at least bother to introduce themselves before the guy starts picturing the woman naked," she drawled, coming to a stop eighteen inches away.

Torontosmirked. "That's bullshit. We see a woman, we frequently picture them naked. We mess with the names when we want to actually think about getting them in bed. Some of us, at least." He skimmed a look over her body, taking in the sleek muscles, the powerhouse curves. Then he focused on her face again, smiled slowly. "So. What's your name?"

She laughed. "Oh, you're smooth. Too bad I'm only in town for a little while."

"Business?"

"Hmmm." She cocked a black brow at him. "Am I interrupting something important? You sounded sort of aggravated on the phone."

"You like listening to private conversations?"

With a lazy shrug, she sauntered around him.Torontotracked her movements by watching her reflection in the window of the nearest bar. As she circled back around in front of him, he checked her knife hand. Still in the left hand, tucked out of sight so nobody would see it unless they were looking for it. She was very, very good.

He was just better.

I mentioned a few days ago, it looks like this will be the final Hunter book.  You can read more about it here.

And I'd love it if you sent it off with a bang and preordered it...

B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM

Other authors out on the snippet line...

 

Megan Hart:Read in bed!

Rhian Cahill

Jody Wallace

Eliza Gayle

Lissa Matthews

Mandy M Roth

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Delilah Devlin

Shelli Stevens

TJ Michaels

DABWAHA…vote for Puck & Ezra (and me)

Pretty please?

Your lovely votes got me into the first round and I love you (well, I'd love you anyway), but now can I pretty please beg you to help me go further?

I'm up against stiff competition. Julie James is the first round. Would you help me?

If you won't help me, would you do it for Puck?

image via Doggie Stylish

How about Puck and Ezra?  (I asked Lena for a picture of the two of them... okay, okay, Smexy found me the picture here, but this is an awesome depiction of them)

Will you give him your vote? Because a vote for me is a vote for Puck & Ezra!

Voting starts today and will take place at the DABWAHA blog...

 

Snippet...

Bad idea, very bad idea, he told himself.  Friends, remember?  Just friends.

"Yeah, and as a friend, I can go out there and see how she is doing, right?  I mean, after the weekend she had, what could it hurt?" Ezra muttered to himself.

Trying to talking himself out of that idea, trying to cool the need, the fire in his gut, he decided to stop by the store.   His last grocery store run, he'd been distracted—and without a list.  Today, he was still distracted, and still without a list, but one thing he'd realized he needed was deodorant so he made himself stop before leaving town.

He made it halfway through the store, congratulated himself for not thinking about Lena. But as he stopped in the microscopic health and beauty section—crap, why did they put men's deodorant in the beauty section—he found himself in front of the display of condoms.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He did not need condoms for a friendly relationship.

SIGNING in Madison...

That Book Place

Madison, IN

3.17.2011

11-1

Randomisity

My first pitiful plea... the #dabwaha voting for IF YOU HEAR HER starts tomorrow.  I'd love it if you voted for me.  You can do it here...

And Puck would love it if you voted for me. See? Puppy puck!

Image via dooziedog

Now Lena didn't get him until he was older, but still.  Cute puppy!

Snippet!

"I kind of like having you around, Ezra. I think I like it a lot."

His laugh was dry, self-deprecating. "You know how to stroke a guy's ego, gorgeous, you know that? I tell you I think I might be falling in love with you and you tell me you like having me hang around."

"Your ego doesn't need stroking." Slipping her arms around his neck, she said, "Slow. We need to go slow with this, because it's majorly unfamiliar territory for me. But…well, even with the mind-blowing sex, if I didn't have feelings for you, what you're telling me would have me so freaked out, I'd be all but shoving you out the door. But you're still here. Does that count for anything?"

He nipped her chin. "For now. Yeah." Then he sighed. "You still insist on going to work?"

"Yes."

"Shit." Nudging her off his lap, he said, "Fine. I'm driving you. I'm picking you up. If anybody says one wrong thing to you, tell Puck to eat him."

Did you read my story A STROKE OF DUMB LUCK? If so, I've fiddled with another one in that world.  Well, two of them.  The question is selling them.  I've got a little of it up on Book Country. You can read some of it without being a member.  If you log in, you can read the first two chapter and rate it and stuff.

And now...cover.

Stand alone.  Due out in October.  Excerpt here.

ETA: More RANDOM stuff...

Booksigning this Saturday in Madison, Indiana...

That Book Place

Madison, IN

3.17.2011

11-1

PSA: Dear Men…it's not the romance books

 

If you and your female companion are having problems in your relationship and she's reading lots and lots of romance books, you might want to blame the romance books.

FYI...a healthy, happy relationship isn't going to go on the rocks because of a bunch of romance books.  It's just not.  In fact, a healthy, happy relationship can actually be enhanced by said romance books, but that's not the point of this PSA.

Relationships take work, on both sides, and there is just no way around this.  My guy and I have been together for almost 21 years now-this summer will mark the 16th anniversary of our wedding and in no way has it been easy.  But we're happy.  We take the bumpy days along with the beautiful ones and we never once forget the fact that we promised for better or worse and we never expected the I do to mean it's all smooth sailing from here.

Marriages require work.  But a healthy, happy one isn't going to go down the tubes because she reads. Or because he reads.  And she isn't going to expect you turn into a strapping 6'2 dude with six pack abs, a smoldering stare, etc, etc.  Really, because we also don't expect we'll turn into the heroine we're reading about.

Think about it...if you read, are you expecting to turn into whatever character you read about?  Think you'll put down the book and your wife has suddenly presto-chango'd herself into the female de jour of the book?

Or if you play video games, are you going to turn into whatever character of your choice may be?

It's make believe.  And it's outright silliness to think a normal, well-adjusted woman expects anything out of a fictional book except enjoyment.

*all opinions, all mine, your opinion may vary, but I've yet to meet a woman who honestly thought reading a book was going to make her husband morph into Christian/Wrath/Roarke/Mr. Darcy/Romeo/etc, etc, etc

**rant inspired by comments in this piece here.

Writer Wednesday… Berinn Rae

What's the one thing that remains unchanged during your writing process, from one book to another? (ie: Intensive plotting? Music?)

A: I never go anywhere without my faithful Moleskine journal to jot down notes and ideas that pop up at a stop light, in the check-out line, or in the middle of the night. I keep my storyboards, character bios, you name it, in that little thing.

What's the one piece of advice you'd give a new writer?

A: Finish the dang manuscript. So quit talking about it and finish it already. FINISH IT.

What's the one piece of advice you wish was wiped from the minds of writers everywhere?

A: "You should do it this way…" Screw that. Just because someone's giving you advice doesn't make her an expert—or that her advice will work for your own, personal writing process.

What's the one book you think everybody, writer or not, should read?

A: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It was through that book I learned the answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything.

Wanna do the Writer Wednesday? Check it out here...

So long to a series…

So I have sad news.  Berkley isn't buying any more Hunter books.  At this point, it looks like Hunter's Rise will be the final book.

Sales have been dropping off and when that happens, publishers just aren't too keen to keep on buying.  Writers love words but numbers often dictate how do things and this is one of those instances.  Numbers made the call here and mine have just sucked lately.  When the sales aren't there, things like this happen.

It kind of sucks because I had a really cool idea to reboot things and flip it on it's head.

Now I don't know what I'll do with it.  Before people rush to offer suggestions, please keep in mind I'm familiar with them...I'm not ruling out the idea of going digital with it again, but this series reboot would be pretty complex and longer, more complex ideas aren't always the easiest things to do with my epubs.  Self publishing it isn't ideal because it's a lot of hard work and there's very little guarantee of making much money.

I also have to work in whatever I do around the projects I plan to fill my plate with and longer projects aren't always doable.  This would be a longer project.

I very much appreciate all the readers who've supported the series over the years.  If at any point I can continue with it, I'll be sure to update the news here at my site.

In the meantime, if you can send it off with a bang, I'd very much appreciate it.

As with most of my Hunter books, this one works wonderfully as a standalone and it won't matter if you haven't read the other books in the series.  You can read an excerpt here or you can preorder at any of the links below.

 B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM

IF YOU winner…

Winner of the IF YOU contest...

@CrystalGB via twitter.

Crystal, I need you to email me...you can use the the contact button on the blog. Keep in mind, you have two weeks to contact me or the prize is forfeit, and per my blog rules, I do not redraw for prizes.

Thanks to all who entered!

Manic Monday

I should be flying home as you read this.  I hope.

Last Monday was a snow day.  We had a two hour delay and I was woken up by the dulcet tones of the baby bratlet who came in to tell me:

"Mama, no matter how hard I try, I can't get the boogers out of my nose."

Thank you for that.  O.o

I spent the day dealing with rescheduling appointments.  I couldn't get my massage apointment because of the snow day so I'm probably going to be very cranky by the time I get in there.  Therapeutic massage is not fun.  It's painful and it's necessary, but it's not fun.

Bratlet needs her braces adjusted.  Couldn't do that either.

I have half a book to rewrite, so that is how I plan to spend the flight.

I'm hoping like crazy a new trilogy I've put together will sell.  Maybe I'll have news soon.

I'm also trying to think of a donation or drive thing for the tornado victims in my area, but I'm wanting to do something that will help the immediate needs, not end up in a national relief fund.  I know they do a lot of good, but when it's something this close to home-and I mean as in just miles, I can't help but want to make sure what I do is going to go right into the communities.

Two books due out next month, so trying to figure out promo for that.  Um...yay?

I've gotten a lot of good feedback on the Ash trilogy. And I mean lot. As in blow-me-away a lot.  A few people weren't as happy with it, and I was prepared for that, but most of you have been overwhelmingly supportive and I can't express my thanks enough.  FRAGILE and BROKEN have always seemed to be my biggest hits, but I think the Ash books are going to surpass them.  Thanks for all the support and feedback.

And my brain is dead.  Think good thoughts on my flight back.  I'm sure I'll be ready to collapse and rest for a few days and hug my kids.  And I know my mom is going to be ready for a break from them... *G*