Category Archives: Updates

Anthologies new and old…

If you didn’t catch it before, the Christmas anthology is ready! A Very Paranormal Holiday is currently not available on retailers, but you can get a free copy of it by emailing me or leaving a comment below. Those who do so will be added to mailing lists of the participating authors so you can receive alerts for their new book releases.

With my 19k short story that is included, Facing the Darkness, you’ll see many familiar characters from the Sensor series. There are updates on what they’ve been up to since Darkness Clashes, a revelation on Cori’s background (the tattoo artist), a fight scene, and quite a bit of character development as Kerbasi learns an important Christmas lesson.

I’m also going to be re-releasing a New Year’s story later this month. For those of you who picked up and read The Stroke of Midnight anthology you will probably recall Tempting the Moon. It’s often referred to as Emily’s werewolf story, though it’s told from Melena’s perspective. The story was written between Chained by Darkness (book 2.5) and Darkness Divides (book 3). Maybe we could call it 3.7? That is while Lucas was still confined in Purgatory so you won’t see him in there, but you will see Micah and a few other familiar characters.

This particular anthology had a 10k word count limit on the stories included. I still went over by about five hundred words, but it always bothered me that I couldn’t expand on some scenes further due to the limit. Now that the anthology is being taken off retailers in a couple of days and I’m free to re-release Tempting the Moon on its own I’m fleshing some of those scenes out to make the story even better. I’ve also had an awesome cover designed for it and written a new summary:

SUMMARY: It’s New Year’s Eve and Melena Sanders is hoping she can survive the night without any more trouble in her life. But then her adopted teenage daughter, Emily, confesses to a prank gone wrong. Now her young werewolf admirer is caught in a trap on a full moon. Melena’s got to figure out fast how to rescue him without either of them getting bitten in the process. Of course, nothing ever goes quite how she plans…

For those who didn’t read this story, you missed the turning point in Emily and Hunter’s relationship. This is your opportunity to find out why Emily later gave him a chance. Plus see Melena get into more trouble.

As soon as the anthology is available on retailers I’ll post links here and send a message to my release alert subscribers. Those who have also signed up for the newsletter will be getting the first one at the end of this month with book release information and other publishing news.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Update on Christmas anthology

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I’ve had several people asking about the Christmas anthology. For those who don’t know, I’ll be participating with five other urban fantasy authors who are including short stories for the book. They will range from between 10-20k words each. You may recognize some of the names as they include Connie Suttle, Mark Henwick, Debra Dunbar, J.C. Mells, and J.T. Bock. Below is the cover and the summary for my story:

“Facing the Darkness”

Kerbasi, a former guardian of Purgatory, has resisted every effort to help him find his humanity. After forty-five hundred years of tending to his prisoners in the cruelest of ways he feels he’s above the petty concerns of mankind. But what’s he to do when he’s charged with bringing comfort to a boy sick with cancer during the holiday season? This is one child who just might break through that impervious wall he’s wrapped around his heart.

RELEASE DATE- December 20th, 2014

The anthology will be free for those who want it. There’s just one catch. To receive it you must agree to being added to all participating author’s book release alerts (your email won’t be used in any other way). If you later find you’re not interested in certain ones you will be able to unsubscribe from future mailings from them.

For those who have already signed up for my book release alerts, I’ll be sending a message out on December 20th letting you know the anthology is available and confirming whether or not you want it after reminding you of the catch. If you do, you’ll get the ebook file for the anthology right after that. Whether you’re on my list or not, you are welcome to email me early saying you’d like to get it and that you’re fine with the stipulation. In that case you’ll get the anthology first thing on the 20th. Just make sure to let me know what type of ereader you use so I can send you the correct format.

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A short Q&A with further details on the story for those who would like to know more about it:

1) Which POV will the story be told in?

Kerbasi’s

2) What other familiar characters will be in there?

Melena (of course), Lucas, Emily, Hunter, Cori, and Kariann

3) Will there be any action?

There is a brief fight scene. Maybe two, depending on if you’d count it or not (sorry, no hints on that).

Hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving. Looking forward to sharing this latest installment in the Sensor Series with you!

Audiobook release and paperbacks

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For those of you who have been waiting for Darkness Divides and Darkness Clashes to be out in paperback, they are both available now. Amazon gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get it done by offering to help out. I think they got tired of waiting for me to do it myself (in my defense, I’ve been busy). Big thanks to the Createspace team for their design work. Here’s the links for those who’d like to pick them up:

Darkness Divides– http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Divides-Sensor-Volume-3/dp/1502932008/

Darkness Clashes– http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Clashes-Sensor-Volume-4/dp/1502932180/

You can also find them on Barnes & Noble as well as some other online retailers.

The big release day for the Darkness Haunts audiobook is this Tuesday (Nov 25th). Pre-order for the digital download is now available, but if you’d like to hear a sample of it first click here. Prices for it vary according to how you purchase so for your convenience I’m going to tell you the cheapest ways to get it as of right now. Keep in mind the cost could go up or down at the retailer’s discretion.

1) For those who shop at Amazon and already own the kindle version of Darkness Haunts, you can get the audio version on Amazon here for $3.49. I’m not sure of the price outside the U.S. but feel free to comment and let me know what you’re seeing if you’re in the UK, Germany, Australia, etc and own the Kindle version.

2) If you’re a member of Audible and have downloads left you could get it for free or if you’re new to the site you could sign up for trial membership and get it for free. Here’s the link- http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Darkness-Haunts-Audiobook/B00PKJ2MJ8/

3) For those who do not have Audible membership (or can’t/won’t get it), and also do not own the Kindle version of Darkness Haunts you have a few options. Buy at full price from Amazon or Audible for $27.99, buy it on iTunes for $23.95, or you can buy it on my publisher website (Tantor) for $14.39 at this link- https://tantor.com/darkness-haunts-susan-illene.html

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can also order the CD versions of the audio book. Here’s the links to those:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Tantor*

Books-A-Million

Waterstones (for the UK folks)

*Currently, Tantor offers CDs at the lowest cost. You can get the regular audio CD that works in all CD players/computers for $14.99 or you can get the MP3 CD for $9.99 that works in computers and some CD players.

I hope those of you who pick it up enjoy the audio version of Darkness Haunts. You can expect Darkness Taunts to be out on December 16th. The CD version for it and the other books in the series are already up for pre-order, but the digital download versions don’t become available until closer to their release dates. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any!

Veterans Day charity drive results

Veterans Day promo for charity

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I wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I will be donating all the royalties I earn through sales tomorrow (November 11th) for DARKNESS HAUNTS to the Wounded Warrior Project. This is for both ebook and paperback with each of the retailers where it’s available (Amazon, B&N, iTunes, and Kobo). After I’ve gotten the totals (which should be by late Wednesday) I will report the full amount earned and for every $100 raised I’ll kick in another $50. I’ll also post a receipt for my donation. Please help me out in making it as much as possible!

If you’re following my blog you’ve probably already purchased Darkness Haunts, but if you know friends or family who might enjoy the novel please let them know. Any help spreading the word through social media would also be appreciated. The hashtag for Twitter to use is #vetsgiveback if you choose to tweet about it.

This is in conjunction with other veteran authors who are also donating to their favorite veteran charities. Even if you can’t purchase Darkness Haunts, you can help by purchasing any of the other books listed at this link, contributing to one of the charities yourself, or offering a contribution to whatever sales I get. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We’ve got a live Google Hangout set up where I’ll be tomorrow afternoon (EST in America) where you can come chat with myself and other veteran authors. This is your chance to ask questions about the Sensor Series if you’ve got any and get them answered right away. You can also feel free to join in whichever other topics we may choose to discuss. This is the link:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cksct3gkph5a9ovoqa3t8hs71t8

And these are the full details about the charity event below:

Veteran’s Day 2014 Charity Challenge: Gone, but Not Forgotten!

On Veteran’s Day 2014, 50 veteran authors will pledge 100% of their print, ebook and audio book royalties to their favorite veteran’s charity. 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 one author deployed to Afghanistan at this moment, 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 15+ veterans charities they’re supporting. If you aren’t interested in any of the books available, they have a page set up ranking the money raised for each charity and spotlighting bonus donations. 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/VeteransDayChallenge

Note: For the sake of transparency, each author will post their donation receipts within 90 days. If you are a veteran author, they are accepting submissions until noon (EST) on 11 November. Please visit the Writer’s Cafe at Kboards for submission details:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,199976.0.html