Some things you should know.

Yes, it’s a list! Because that’s the easiest format I could think of, and my brain is fried from writing two novels back to back, and now promoting two releases, back to back.

Blood Bound stuff:

Blood Bound comes out in eight days. Or in seventeen days. It depends on whether you count the August 23 shelf date or the Sept 1 release date as the real thing.Blood Bound is getting some really good reviews. I can’t explain this. I am sure this is a flawed book (my first venture into double POV) and I would do a million things differently if I could go back and do it all over again. But I can’t, so I can only hope that the characters and storytelling continue to win readers over in spite of the flaws I still see.I have no promotional plan for Blood Bound, mostly because I’m not sure how to promote this first book in a new series, because most people don’t yet know the characters or the world. But I will be having a spread-the-word contest soon. It involves you helping me spread the word, and me giving you prizes.

If I Die stuff:

If I Die comes out in thirty-seven days. Or in forty-one days. It depends on whether you count the September 27th shelf date
or the October 1 release date as the real thing.If I Die is getting some really good reviews. I can’t explain this. A few months ago, at the RT convention in LA, I told a couple of friends that If I Die was the worst book I’ve ever written. I told my critique partner that I couldn’t open the manuscript in Word without feeling like I would lose my lunch. (I almost wrote the word ‘vomit,’ then decided that was a bit graphic for my blog.) My only explanation for this discrepancy between my own opinion and that of reviewers is that I am obviously not the best judge of the quality of my own work. But I have no doubt that other reviewers will soon come to my rescue with some bad reviews. The world of publishing has yet to fail me on that point. If I Die is going on a blog tour sponsored by my publisher in September. The stops are already scheduled, the grand prize is planned, and I will be soon hard at work writing content for this blog tour. But that’s not all!If I Die is also going to be prominently featured here in my own blog space in the near future. In the weeks leading up to the official release, I will be hosting a series of character Q&As, one character per week. You (my loyal online followers) will have all week, beginning Monday, to ask each character your questions. I will pick several (how many depends on how many Qs come in) for that week’s character to answer on Friday. On that Friday, one winner will be drawn at random from the list of question-askers. That winner will receive a signed, personalized finished copy of If I Die as well as a character-specific quote t-shirt. So… Get your questions ready. The schedule looks like this:

Week of Sept. 5: Emma
Week of Sept. 12: Tod
Week of Sept. 19: Sabine
Week of Sept. 26: Nash
Week of Oct. 3: Kaylee

Also, there’s one last thing you should know today. Last week, my publisher asked me to temporarily take down the PDF versions of “My Soul To Lose” and “Reaper” from my website, and I have complied. I must apologize, because I said they would always be free on my site, as I intended them as a gift to my readers. Rest assured, this is temporary, and my publisher has my best interests in mind. Here’s why:

The Soul Screamers omnibus comes out on November 22 and will include not only the first two Soul Screamers novels (MSTTake and MSTSave) but also, for the first time in print, “My Soul To Lose,” the online novella that launched both the Soul Screamers series and the entire Harlequin Teen line. I hope to have a cover to show off very soon. To encourage sales of this omnibus, we’ve taken “My Soul To Lose” down from my site. (I’m assuming they asked me to remove “Reaper” too because if the first omnibus does well enough, there could be a second, but don’t quote me on that. I have no official confirmation of that.)

*Warning, shameless self-promotion below*

If you’ll notice, the Nov. 11 release date means that the Soul Screamers omnibus would make a PERFECT gift for any teen who hasn’t yet discovered the series. Know one? Here’s where you can preorder this awesome holiday gift! (Picture me smiling convincingly.)