The benefits of being exclusive

Sometimes life zips by, faster than I can keep up. My bad. If I haven't shown you the awesome cover for my next book yet, well, here it is:


Titled, FEAST: HARVEST OF DREAMS, this book is a stand-alone and it comes out on June 28, 2011.

Here's the back cover copy:

BACK COVER COPY:

Halloween is a bad time to return to the woods…

Madeline MacFadden (“Mad Mac” to fans of her bestselling magical stories) spent blissful childhood summers in Ticonderoga Falls. And this is where she wants to be now that her adult life is falling apart. The dense surrounding forest holds many memories, some joyous, some tantalizingly only half-remembered. And she’s always believed there was something living in these wooded hills.

But Maddie doesn’t remember the dark parts—and knows nothing of the mountain legend that holds the area’s terrified residents captive. She has no recollection of Ash, the strange and magnificent creature who once saved her life as a child, even though it is the destiny of his kind to prey upon humanity. And soon it will be the Harvest…the time to feast.

Once again Maddie’s dreams—and her soul—are in grave danger. But magic runs deep during Harvest. Even a spinner of enchanted tales has wondrous powers of her own…

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And, believe it or not, I just found out the coolest thing from my editor, Diana Gill. (SQUEEEEE)

I can share an exclusive excerpt of FEAST with subscribers of my newsletter.

So, if you'd like to read the first chapter, then sign up for my newsletter, either in the box in the right sidebar or follow the link HERE.

All I can say is, I'm so excited that I can finally share part of my new book with my readers! Yay!!

One of the best things about the writer's journey

You've probably heard this a thousand times. But it's really true. Making new friends is one of the absolute best things that can happen to you during the writer's journey--friends who also happen to love words. I treasure each and every person that I've met along the way, from people like me who are just starting out to people who are still hoping to get published to people who are much farther along and actually have books out there in the literary universe.

One super awesome pal I've met along the way is the uber-talented Tracey O'Hara. And she has a new release in her Dark Brethren series: DEATH'S SWEET EMBRACE. In fact, right now, she's in the midst of a whirlwind blog tour.


Today, Bitten By Books is hosting her amazing launch party, so I highly recommend that you check it out. And, just for fun, here's a link to a cool review of her first book, NIGHT'S COLD KISS.

And if you click on THIS LINK, you can find out about the rest of the stops on her blog tour. Believe it or not, she's going to be here, on THIS VERY BLOG, on February 13. And she's going to be chatting about her writing rituals and she's going to give us tips on writing a series. I don't know about you, but any info a multi-published author can give me on writing a series is very welcome.

And if you want to hang out with Tracey some more, you can follow her on TWITTER HERE, you can friend her on FACEBOOK HERE, you can check out her WEBSITE HERE.

And you can purchase her brand, new, shiny book, DEATH'S SWEET EMBRACE here.

Three cheers for Tracey, one of my bestest writing pals!! I hope your book sells gazillions!

The long day that wasn't

Have you ever spent all day working on something, only to finally realize that it really wasn't working? Not even a tiny bit? That was me and my imaginary newsletter today. I spent the entire day working on a layout and putting together a subscriber's list. Now, at the end of the day, after e-mailing myself a sample of said newsletter, I've come to the conclusion that I could have had this done as a blog post in about half an hour. As a newsletter, it took all day and still isn't quite right.

Me thinks my grand plans for communicating with the ever-expanding cyber universe via e-mail is not what I hoped.

But I can still blog, right? I mean, we always have Paris. (Weird, incongruent reference to an old movie there.)

Anyway, there are some cool things going on online right now that I haven't mentioned here, on my own blog. Because I forgot. Or maybe because I was working on my third novel. Or maybe because I was playing around with that blasted newsletter.

So, forgetting about those things that are behind me and are named N - - - - - - - - R, here are some cool happenings on the Net...

I wrote two other blog posts. On other blogs. And each one of them is giving away one of my books. I know. I can't believe I didn't mention it either.

Here they are:

Right now I have a VERY REVEALING post over at the Supernatural Underground. You can check that one out HERE.

And I wrote a blog-post-article thingie about Organic World Building over at Speculative Faith. What's organic world building, you ask? Good question. The answer to that can be found HERE.

So, I hope your day was MUCH more productive than mine. But if not, and you feel like sharing the details--from the moment the dog ran out the door without his leash to the moment that you remembered that you have NO hot water but you still need to take a shower--feel free to tell me ALL about it. That's what the comments section is for.

And right now, I'm going to do my best to step away from the newsletter. Before one of us gets hurt.

The King's Speech and a Collin Firth fan side note

Wow.

Okay, that was my one-word review of the movie, The King's Speech. I've always loved historical dramas and biographies of historic figures, but this one was phenomenal. Such an incredible story of love (between King George and his wife, between George and his children, between Lionel and his wife and his children), of friendship (between George and Lionel), and perseverance over disabilities.



I think we, as commoners, will never truly know what it would be like to grow up in a royal family, but this movie gives you an inside look--and it's one that might surprise you. I have a feeling that everyone will fall in love with Colin Firth's character by the end of the movie. In fact, during the showing I attended, the audience clapped when the movie was over. In a way, the film was a little bit like Rudy, where everyone was rooting for the main character to succeed.

I think most of us can identify with the underdog, in some way. And if that underdog can manage to defeat his own inner demons, then go on to fight against one of the greatest monsters of all time (in this case, Hitler), well, that is the stuff of legends.

On a quirky side note: Did anybody out there recognize the actress who played Lionel's wife?

Jennifer Ehle played Myrtle Logue in this film. But she also played Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, opposite Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy.

Here's my favorite scene from that 1995 film, the one where Colin Firth first captured my heart. The dance scene: