Category Archives: Updates

Charity Drive, Audio, and other updates

I meant to have an update post sooner, but I had a family emergency come up over the weekend.  My brother was in a car crash last Friday and ended up being flown by helicopter to the hospital because of a head injury he received in the collision.  At first they feared they’d have to operate, but thankfully the bleeding in his brain stopped and they transferred him over to the ICU where they monitored him for a couple of days.

It was a scary experience seeing my younger brother lying there on a ventilator.  The hospital where they took him is nearly an hour from my home so I spent as much time as I could with him until he was out of danger.  Thankfully, he’s been released now and is recuperating.  If anyone messaged me in recent days I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but I am trying to catch up.

Memorial Day charity drive

For those who read my previous post or caught my mention on Facebook, I participated in a charity drive for veteran charities late last month.  From May 22nd to the 29th any sales I received on Darkness Haunts (all formats), would go to the Wounded Warrior Project.  I didn’t meet my goal of $500, but did raise $302.54 between ebook and paperback sales.  For audio, I’m traditionally published and can’t get the numbers for a while so I kicked up the total amount to cover that.  Today I sent $400 to the Wounded Warrior Project as my donation from the fundraiser.  Thanks to everyone who either bought a copy or helped spread the word.  I really appreciate it.

Darkness Shatters audio coverDarkness Shatters audio release

For those who have been waiting for Darkness Shatters to come out in audio, it is available today.  You can pick up your copy wherever audiobooks are sold in either digital or CD format.  I’m including a few links below:

Amazon

Audible

iTunes

Tantor (only $4.99 as of this posting)

 

Stalked by Flames cover (promo)Stalked by Flames news

I plan to have the first three chapters posted by mid-June for you all to check out.  Stay tuned if you’re interested in trying the first book in my all-new dragon series.  If you haven’t heard about it yet, you can find out more details here.

Memorial Day Charity Drive 2015

Some of you may remember me participating in a charity drive on Veterans Day last year.  I donated all the royalties earned on Darkness Haunts that day to the Wounded Warrior Project.  In remembrance of Memorial Day, I’m donating all the royalties earned (for ebook and paperback) on Darkness Haunts for a whole week beginning today, May 22nd.  My hope is to raise at least $500 to give to the Wounded Warrior Project to help veterans in need.  After the drive is over on May 29th I will come back to announce the total and show the receipt for my donation.

Of course, I realize most of you following this blog already own a copy of the novel, but if you could spread the word to others who might be interested in purchasing Darkness Haunts that would be great.  Tweeting or sharing the event on Facebook would also be very helpful.  Here’s a link to the project Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/vetsgiveback

As another alternative you could check out books by other participating authors to help in their fundraising campaign.  All of them are veterans donating to various veteran-related charities.  A list of their books, according to genre, can be found here.

For more information about the drive and how you can help see the official announcement below:

 

Memorial Day 2015 Veteran’s Charity Challenge: Gone, but Not Forgotten!

During Memorial Day week, from the 22nd to 29th of May, more than 70 veteran authors will pledge 100% of their print, ebook and audio book royalties to their favorite charity supporting veterans or a large flat-rate donation. In most cases, these are organizations that assisted the authors personally and they are trying their best to give back.

Veterans from each service branch and every conflict period, from Vietnam to even active duty authors, are pledging. This diverse collection of works includes New York Times and USA Today Bestsellers and covers most genres. From romance to action-adventure and everything in between, there’s something for every taste here!

The ultimate goal of this event is to raise at least $10,000 for the 20+ charities they’re supporting. If you aren’t interested in purchasing any of the pledged books, you can always make a direct and public donation. We track the money raised for each charity and spotlight bonus donations here. Whether you contribute to the best performing or the least performing, either way your donation will be put to good use!

The complete collection of participating books and charities can be found here:
http://bit.ly/vetsgiveback

If you are interested in helping support or promote this event without having to donate, please share this charity drive on Facebook, Twitter or your website. Every little bit of help makes a difference! #vetsgiveback

https://www.facebook.com/vetsgiveback

RT Booklovers Convention 2015

I’ll be driving to Dallas tomorrow for the RT convention and plan to be there through to the weekend.  If you’d like to meet up, I have an appearance at Club RT between 3:00-3:30pm on Thursday, May 14th.   Those who stop by will get free swag items and I can sign books as well.  If you can’t make that let me know and we can try meeting at a different time.  I won’t be at the Book Fair on Saturday, but I will be at the wild, wild west steampunk party on Thursday night (wearing a corset!) and the RT awards ceremony and after party on Friday.

For today, I’ve got a lot of packing and other last minute things to do before leaving.  For those of you attending the convention, I hope to see you there!

 

Cover reveal for Stalked by Flames

I’ve been keeping this quiet for a while now, but it’s finally time to announce a new series I’m starting this summer.  The idea for this came to me over a year ago.  At the time I was working on Darkness Divides and knew I needed to stay focused on the Sensor Series for a few more books before mixing anything else into my writing schedule, but the story continued to bug me.  While plenty of ideas hit me all the time this one refused to let go.  I jotted notes, wrote random scenes, and did some research, but it wasn’t until the release of Darkness Shatters that I allowed myself to focus on Stalked by Flames (though, not to worry, Darkness Wanes is still coming out in October).

It is the first novel in what I hope will become a long series.  The genre is urban fantasy with some apocalyptic elements and it has entirely different creatures/races than the Sensor books.  For those wondering about romance it is going to be a slow-burn that will play out over the course of the series.  There’s no rushing this one, but it will happen eventually.  The heroine will have her POV in first person and the hero in third person (much like what you saw in Darkness Shatters).

Next month I’ll post a book trailer, behind-the-scenes shots from the model photo shoot, and a book excerpt.  For now, you can check out the cover and book summary.  Hope you all are as excited about this one as I am!

Stalked by Flames cover (promo)

EXPECTED RELEASE DATE- July 20th, 2015

SUMMARY:

Bailey Monzac has just graduated college and is heading to her parents’ ranch for the summer when dragons invade. Like something out of her worst nightmare, the fire-breathing beasts rain down chaos and devastation on unsuspecting human populations. One minute Bailey’s planning her future; the next she’s merely trying to survive.

But it isn’t long before she discovers she’s different from the people around her—the dragons’ destructive flames don’t affect her. That gives her an edge, but it also means she’ll become a target for powerful individuals seeking to use her to their advantage. Bailey will have to distinguish between allies and enemies quickly as she gets drawn into a war unlike anything the Earth has seen before.

Add to your Goodreads TBR list here.

*****************

I also have a lot of people to thank for the cover design on this one as it took a whole team to put my vision together.  Below you’ll find everyone involved in the process, but I’d like to give a special shout-out to Alison Esposito at Wild Wolf Leatherwork on Etsy for making the custom leather harness the model is wearing.  It turned out amazing!  Also, I can’t express how much I appreciate the help of my fan design team including Rachel, Sarah, and Kristy who helped me with wardrobe selection and model poses.  You ladies are awesome!

Background design with dragon- Jeff Brown Graphics

Model- Isabella Capri

Model photographer- Teresa Yeh

Hair stylist/make-up artist- Nadya Rutman

Cover design- Claudia McKinney

Typography- Catie McKinney

 

April updates and sale on Darkness Haunts

For those who don’t subscribe to my newsletter and missed it this morning I wanted to give a few updates.  The first is that Darkness Haunts is currently on sale for only 99 cents through to tomorrow night (April 2nd) on all the major retailers.  If you know anyone who might be interested in trying the series out, this is a great time to get the first book at a discount since I’m not sure if/when I’ll drop the price again.  You can find the purchase links for it here.

In other news…

One of the questions I’ve been asked a lot lately is when the Darkness Shatters paperback will be out.  I’m waiting on the hard copy proof to look over, but I expect to approve it and have it ready for sale within the next two weeks.  Some of you are also waiting on the audio version of Darkness Shatters.  My publisher has set the release date for June 3rd of this year and the CD version is already up for pre-order.  They usually don’t have the digital version on pre-order until 2-3 weeks before the release, but I’ll put out another reminder close to then for those who need it.

As far as my publishing schedule on upcoming books go, I’m writing a novel now for an all-new series with the first book releasing in late June.  It’s an idea that hit me about a year ago and has been bugging me ever since.  I’ve worked on it in bits and pieces over the past months, but forced myself to wait until after publishing Darkness Shatters before putting my full attention on it.  This one falls within the dark fantasy genre, but has totally different races/creatures than the Sensor Series.  Most of my current readers should find it appealing.  Yes, I’m leaving the details vague but I’ll reveal the cover and summary in about a month so you can find out more then.

For Darkness Wanes, book six of the Sensor Series, I expect to have it out in October of this year.  That will wrap up the story arc for the main series, but I’ll go on to write spin-offs for some of the side characters and explore more on how *spoiler alert* the world has changed with supernaturals coming out in the open.  There will be at least two of those novels (one featuring Cori as the main character and another featuring Micah) and possibly a third if the demand for Kerbasi to get his own novel keeps up.  After that, I may do a book seven with Melena and Lucas where I actually keep them together for the plot (try not to be too shocked).  Yes, I hear the complaints but keep in mind this is an urban fantasy series, not a paranormal romance so the focus has been different.  Book seven would be to please the PNR lovers.

That’s it for now, but feel free to ask questions below if you have any.