Interviews, Contest, & Excerpt

I feel like I'm running massively behind today and it ain't pretty. So this is more just a drive-by blogging, but I will give you plenty to do!

I've begun my blog tour to celebrate the upcoming release of Burn the Night, and you don't want to miss out on all the secrets, stories, and contests!

First, a new interview was posted on Monday with a GREAT read! I tell some tidbits behind all the goodness of Burn the Night and the Dark Days series. In addition, a GREAT read is hosting a contest as well. Head over and check it out!

Second, a new interview was posted today on Red Hot Books. The blogger caught me with some really excellent questions, and I really spill my guts on this one. Check out some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that was meant to go into the Dark Days series. Go to Red Hot Books.

And finally, what you've been waiting for: the massive excerpt for Burn the Night is available on my publisher's website. Click to read the first 74 pages of the book!

As a little P.S., I just heard that my publisher is aiming to release the novella about Mira and Valerio in the fall. I'll be posting updates on that as they become available.

Happiness Is A Cookie

Some days, when you're bogged down with work and you can't see the forest for the trees, happiness is a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie. It's a shoulder rub while you're sitting at the computer. It's finding that you're rose bush has started blooming.

Yesterday, my happiness was a visit from my niece and brother. My lovely niece is going to be four this summer and she is so wonderfully precocious.

My happiness was also some very positive comments from my agent regarding the short story/novella that I wrote for Mira and Valerio. I will be making some minor corrections later today and then shipping it off to my editor. My fingers are crossed that she likes it as well. The story was definitely a move outside my comfort zone when it comes to Mira and her crew. The request from readers was to tell a story about Mira and Valerio when they were seeing each other. As a result, I had to tell a story set during the Regency era, which is a couple hundred years before the Dark Days series. Not only does this story give a much closer look at Valerio, but it is also a slightly different view of Mira. She's younger, less experienced, and still has to face a number of terrible events in her life that will harden her into the creature you meet in the Dark Days series. The story manages to be very tender while retaining Mira's usual violent streak.

I don't know yet when the short story/novella will be released. It depends on edits and how long it takes to format for e-readers. Stay tuned for more updates when I am able to release them.

In other news, I recently posted a new excerpt from Burn the Night on Supernatural Underground. If you haven't had a chance to read it, please click here. We've got fewer than 50 days until the release of Burn the Night; have you pre-ordered your copy? You don't want to miss out on this wild adventure as readers will get an intense look at Rowe and the rest of the naturi, as well as find out Ryan's real motives, meet Our Liege, and finally face the Great Awakening.

Finally, I am working on the first book in the Tattoo Artist series. After working on the Dark Days series for so long, it always surprises me how foreign the Tattoo Artist world is to me. I'm still getting to know the characters and all their interesting nuances, while constantly meeting new ones. This book has had a lot of difficult scenes for me to write. Not only in the sense that I've had to carefully plan them out, but also in the idea that the topics were extremely uncomfortable and it has taken some delicacy of writing. I have a feeling that I will coming back to those scenes again and again in the revisions.

For this series, I have been contracted for two short stories and two novels. I'm already hoping that it sells well so I can sell more novels for the series. I feel like I've just scratched the surface for the world and there's so much to tell, I don't think I can squeeze it all in with just two books. So fingers are crossed that readers love the series.

A Surprise Gift -- A Sneak Peek

I took a peek at the countdown clock on my Blogger account today and noticed that we officially have less than 100 days until the release of Burn the Night: the Final Book of the Dark Days series on June 28. So, I've pulled together all the threads and tied up those loose ends with some neat and hopefully unexpected answers.

Does Aurora finally succeed in her quest for dominion over the planet and destruction of mankind?

What plans does Mira's father Nick have for her and can she escape?

Will Rowe finally corner Mira and be her demise?

Will the Daylight Coalition expose the nightwalkers' secret to the world?

Will Mira finally have the strength to get Jabari permanently out of her life?

Can the Great Awakening be stopped?

And will Mira and Danaus have their happily ever after?

All these questions and more will be answered in Burn the Night. But for now, as a celebration of having less than 100 days until the release, here is a brief snippet from the book that comes out on June 28.



“Damn it, Mira!” Danaus taunted in a low whisper, a smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth. “Are you going to need a tissue or can you pull it together?”

I threw the hunter a dark look, but otherwise kept my comments to myself. The ceremony was going to start soon, and Barrett had generously allowed us to attend since we were the only people that James saw as both friends and in a twisted way family. I wasn’t going to be the one that started trouble.

Yet, I could understand Danaus’s teasing all too well. As we stood there in the quiet forest, a ring of werewolves around us, I tried to focus on the bare-chested James next to Barrett and the rest of the Rainer family. Unfortunately, my mind drifted too often to my recently lost Lily and Tristan. Two people I had taken into my family, into my heart, that were stolen from me through violence and treachery just a few months ago. Watching James being inducted into the Savannah Pack, I tried to reassure myself that he would be safe and that no one would strike at him in an effort to get to me. He was now a part of Savannah, but there was a safe distance between me and him.

A hollow ache echoed through my chest. Months had passed and still I found myself conjuring up ways that things could have gone differently, resulting in one or both of them being alive today. It was a futile act that only extended my pain, making me more vulnerable to the world around me, but I had Danaus at my side.

The hunter had returned from Venice with me and moved into my town house in the historic district of Savannah. I had opened my house to him outside of the city, but he proclaimed that living together was a bit fast for him. But even that was said with a smile, as he tended to spend most of his evenings wrapped in my arms at my home. Danaus had left Themis behind, and a part of me was relieved to have him out of Ryan’s grasp. The warlock leader of the so-called research society was more trouble than either of us was prepared to deal with. I had no doubt that Ryan still had more schemes that included us, but for now he seemed content to let us live in peace in Savannah.

Determined to earn his keep, Danaus took a job as a bartender and occasional bouncer down at The Dark Room. The exclusive club that catered only to nightwalkers and lycanthropes suffered a bit of a shake-up at his presence, but things had settled back into their normal routine. I hadn’t the heart to tell him that as part owner of the Dark Room, I was the one paying his salary each week. Danaus needed to feel independent and yet still connected to the dark other world that pulsed just beyond the notice of the humans.

To my surprise, Danaus’s fingers brushed against my hand hanging down at my side before he finally entwined his fingers around mine. Stop thinking about them. Let them rest, he admonished in my brain.

Will he be safe?

He will be safe.

Some of the tension finally flowed out of my shoulders and I squeezed his hand as I resisted the urge to lay my head against his hard shoulder. Danaus had become my rock, my one shining lighthouse in the storm, my last hold on sanity in this world. More darkness and evil lay just over the horizon, but I knew that I would at least have Danaus at my side.

Keep thinking thoughts like that and I’m going to need a tissue, Danaus teased.

Asshole, I replied, mentally chuckling at him. I should have known that he would be a silent specter in my thoughts. I had been too dark lately as the world grew quiet. The naturi had left my territory and there was no word from the coven. Not even my father Nick had popped in recently to torment me. Now in my spare time, I paced the floor and stared out the window with my arms folded over my stomach, waiting. I didn’t know what it was, but something bad was coming.



Are you interested now? Here are some links if you would like to pre-order your copy so you don't forget about it coming out later this summer.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books a Million

Borders

IndieBound

Powells

Thanks for all your support and stay tuned for more goodies ahead of the release of Burn the Night.

Pray for Dawn Excerpt

I've just a got quick note today to keep you busy before I get back to work. I noticed on the countdown clock that there is less than a month until the release of Pray for Dawn. So I gave my editor a nudge last night and asked if I could post an excerpt of the book. She said "YES!".

So, here is a link to my Discussion Board -- The Dark Room -- which currently has the excerpt. It was the easiest and fastest way to post the first chapter for reading. When my publisher releases another chunk of the book, I will be posting a new link.

Thanks! And happy reading!

Dawnbreaker Excerpt and Book Update

Work remains brisk. The deadline for the finished draft of Book 5 in the Dark Days series is looming like a black cloud. Progress is being made on the book, but I wonder if I am moving too slowly. I am also concerned that this book is going to run short. Of course, that is a minor concern. My books always seem to grow longer during the revision stage.

In a quick progress check, Book 5 is:
63,226 words
202 pages
15 chapters
1432 paragraphs
274,746 character (with no spaces)

I’ve noticed that these chapters seem to be running a little longer than in past books. For some reason, these characters have more to say this time around. I’m also balancing a main plot and several subplots that are constantly getting tangled with one another. I think this book is proving to be the most difficult to write of all the ones I’ve tackled so far.

In other news, stop by the Book Bundle today. They have posted an interview of me talking about Dawnbreaker and the Dark Days Series.

Want a sneak peek at Dawnbreaker? I have posted an excerpt of Dawnbreaker on the Dark Room discussion board. My website designer and I have different schedules at the moment so it might be a few days before I can get it up on my site. I'll keep you updated.

Also, don’t forget that I will be on Blog Talk Radio on Thursday, September 17 at 2 pm Eastern time. I will be talking with Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, Jeaniene Frost, and Melissa Marr talking about our novellas in the Unbound anthology. Be sure to catch the show! Call in with your questions!

Finally, come back to the blog tomorrow to read an interview with Tracey O’Hara!

Dayhunter Excerpt

Today's a short entry because I'm trying to very quickly work on a special project before I have to jump into the edits for Book 4.

However, if you are interested, I have posted the entire first chapter of Dayhunter up on my discussion board under the Dayhunter thread. You can read it there, or you can wait until this weekend, when I will be posting it to my website.

Enjoy!

Nightwalker Excerpt

Sigh, one down and one to go. I mailed off the completed novella to my editor this afternoon and now all I have left to finish before the RWA conference at the end of the month are the edits for Book 2!

In other news, my editor shipped me a couple copies of the final version of Nightwalker, and it is BEAUTIFUL. Simply beautiful. It was so wonderful to finally hold the completed version of my book in my hands after working on it for so long. It's been a long journey and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just a little bit longer until the release.

It also dawned on me today that I forgot to post an excerpt of Nightwalker. So, if you are interested in reading a portion of the first chapter, just click here!