Category Archives: Updates

Photo shoot for the Sensor Series with a trip to Boston

I apologize ahead of time that this is a long post, but I promise it’s worth reading and there are lots of pics!

This past month has been super busy.  As most of you know I negotiated a contract for my audio rights.  Right after that I had to begin furious planning for a book cover/promo photo shoot I’d scheduled months ago.  With the help of four wonderful fans who make up my design helper team (thanks Heather, Sarah, Rachel, and Kristy) we had to come up with concepts for the covers, choose wardrobes & props, decide on poses, hair styles & make-up, and the list goes on.  We also had to make sure everything was ordered and shipped before the photo shoot.  Because of pushing back the release on Darkness Clashes we had less than two weeks to pull all this off.  We’re also in three different countries/continents, which made correspondence times between us a bit wonky.

Let’s just say it was hectic and I’m so thankful to my team for pulling through to help me get things ready.

Despite our best efforts, though, not everything could go the way we hoped.  For instance Continue reading

Audio books for the Sensor Series

Some of you have asked about this in the past and now I can give you an answer!  Recently, Tantor Media approached me with an offer to buy the English language audio rights to the Sensor Series books (up to Darkness Clashes).  As much as I love handling ebooks and paperbacks myself, it was actually a relief to sell the rights for the audio and let professionals take care of it all.  I simply don’t have the time or the know-how to do it myself (though I respect the authors who do!).  This is a company who has handled many well-known authors so I trust them to do a great job.

The details of the deal included me getting final say on the narrator.  Last week they provided several wonderful choices.  One stood out in particular as being just the right voice for Melena.  I’m happy to say Cris Dukehart will be narrating all the Sensor Series books.  She has already started recording.

Update– There is now a sample of Cris reading the beginning of Darkness Haunts on the Tantor site here if you’d like to listen.

I’ve also got the release schedule for all the novels.  I’m including that below, along with links where they’re available for pre-order (CD versions only).  Once I have links to the digital download versions and any other retailers I’ll add those as well.

Darkness Haunts : 11/25/14  (Tantor/Amazon/B&N)
Darkness Taunts : 12/16/14  (Tantor/Amazon/B&N)
Chained by Darkness : 1/6/15  (Tantor/Amazon/B&N)
Darkness Divides : 1/27/15  (Tantor/Amazon/B&N)
Darkness Clashes : 2/17/15  (Tantor/Amazon/B&N)

For Playing with Darkness, it will be included at the end of Darkness Divides since its too short to stand on its own.  I’m glad Tantor recognized its significance to the series and offered to include it without me having to ask.  Plus it’s a bonus to readers so you won’t have to buy it separately.  They’ve also been great at working fast to get the books out and I hope those of you who enjoy the audio formats will be happy with the quality of their work!

Vlog for last week’s Q&A session

For those of you who are interested in watching the video with me answering fan questions about the Sensor Series (there are spoilers if you haven’t read Darkness Clashes yet), I’m posting the link below where you can watch it.  Tomorrow I’ll contact winners from among those who participated in the original Q&A post so I can work out getting their prizes to them.  If you enjoy the video style Q&A please let me know in the comments section and I’ll consider doing more of them in the future!

http://sheerak.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/susan-illene-video-blog-for-the-sensor-series/

Q&A session this week!

For those of you who’d like to ask questions about the Sensor Series, this is your chance.  I’m over at Ch’kara SilverWolf’s blog today where you can leave questions in the comments section that I will answer via video blog next Sunday.  You have until Thursday night to get them in before the post is closed.  I’ll put up another link here when we post the video.  Commenters will also be entered into a giveaway to win a free signed paperback for one of the Sensor Series books and a tote bag.  Be sure to stop by!

http://sheerak.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/sensor-series-by-susan-illene/

Giveaway for jewelry worn by the model on the Darkness Clashes cover

This Sunday (September 21st) I will be doing a giveaway for the necklace and bracelet worn by the female model on Darkness Clashes.  The winner will also receive one promo item of their choice (tote bag, series notebook, signed paperback, coffee mug, etc).  The contest will be on Facebook only.  I apologize to those who don’t have an account, but there will be other giveaways coming up soon that don’t require you to have one.  Such as a Q&A event I’m planning.

For those who are able to participate this Sunday (Monday in Australia), expect that I will be asking a random question from Darkness Clashes.  The first person to answer will win the prizes.  The question will come from the first half of the book so if you haven’t finished the novel yet you’ll be okay as long as you’ve hit close to the fifty percent mark.  I also understand time is precious and you can’t hover on Facebook all day/night.  You can expect the question to come during the following one-hour period (adjusted for time zones):

US Time

4pm-5pm (EDT)

3pm-4pm (CDT)

2pm-3pm (MDT)

1pm-2pm (PDT)

Europe

UK: 9pm-10pm

Germany/France: 10pm-11pm

Australia

Melbourne/Sydney: 6am-7am

Perth:  4am-6am

 

The vast majority of my readers come from the above areas.  I have worked the times out the best I can so that none of them are in the middle of the night, though the Aussies will have to be up rather early (sorry!).  These were calculated today based on current time differences.  If your area will be adjusting the clock over the weekend because of daylight savings ending please keep that in mind.  US times are the basis.  For those who live in another country I would recommend converting them yourself just to be safe.

For a close-up of the necklace and bracelet, here you go:

Darkness Clashes bracelet Darkness Clashes necklace