Hey, everyone. As I mentioned in a previous post, the cover for Darkness Clashes is being revealed exclusively today over at Bitten by Books. There’s also a giveaway for a $50 Amazon gift card. Stop by and check it out for your chance to win. Here’s the link:
I also got bookmarks in yesterday to go with the new cover, plus a few other goodies. Expect some giveaways for those either here or on Facebook in the near future.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
I wanted to wait until most people had a chance to read Darkness Divides before posting this. It’s a video of the same plane (Casa-212) and type of parachute Melena used in the book. The main difference being this takes place at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina during the daytime (plus the troops are using proper military procedures instead of Mel’s improvising). You can see how Melena would have strapped her pack to the front of her similar to the way they do. These troops are probably carrying upwards of 100 pounds on them, which makes it rather awkward to walk.
I’ve actually jumped on the same drop zone this video shows about a dozen times, often using that plane, so I did draw heavily from those experiences for the novel. Hopefully this gives you a better idea for what it would feel like to do it.
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAwIzpHfOaY
The author community is buzzing with the latest news about Kindle Unlimited (KU). A $9.99 a month program Amazon released a few days ago where readers can borrow an unlimited number of ebooks (though they can only keep ten at a time).
From a reader’s standpoint it’s not a bad deal. It gives them the opportunity to try out books they might not have otherwise and if they don’t like them? They can return them, never to see those works muddy their Kindle again. If they do like them, they may even go on to pick up more from the author. Amazon has managed to include some well-known titles in an effort to expand the selection (currently at 600,000) and tempt readers into giving the program a chance. Having said that, you’ll still find more than a few favorites not available.
For independent authors, there is a good reason their books may not be there. Most self-published novels (with a few exceptions) are required to be exclusive to Amazon if they want their book in KU. What exactly does that mean? An author must pull their participating ebooks from all other retailers so that the only place they can be found is Amazon. For some writers this isn’t a big deal, but for others it is asking a lot.
There is also the question of how much an author can earn within the program. As it stands now, a short story will earn the same as a full-length novel for each borrow. No one is quite sure how much that will be, but estimates are as low as 30 cents a download (after the reader passes the first ten percent of the book). This gives less incentive for authors to put their longer works into the pool. In fact, it may give rise to a greater number of serial books where it would require more downloads to get the entire story, thereby earning the author more money.
I know some of you may choose to sign up for KU and I do think that’s great. Heck, I’ve considered it myself as a reader and may give it a shot. For now, though, I won’t be putting any of my own books into the program. There seems to be a lot of kinks that still need to be worked out and I’m not interested in limiting my work to just one retailer. I do have fans who prefer Nook, Kobo, or iTunes and I don’t want to force them to make a decision as to how to obtain my books…or not.
How things play out in the future I cannot say. I might write a stand-alone novel that I feel is a good fit for KU or I might experiment on something with other urban fantasy authors for a different kind of work. But for the Sensor Series (and any of the shorter spin-offs), it’s going to be staying out unless some of my concerns are alleviated. Particularly the exclusivity factor.
I hope that this doesn’t inconvenience any Amazon readers who decide to try KU and that they will continue to pick up the Sensor books as they release. If you’ve got your own thoughts on the new program, feel free to leave a comment below. I am curious to hear what others think.
I just got back last night from a trip to New Orleans. This was primarily a research trip, but my husband and I had a good time while there. I would have preferred going sooner than this since some parts of Darkness Clashes do take place there (no spoilers, not to worry), but that was the soonest my husband could take off work. He didn’t want to miss it since he’d never been to Louisiana. This meant sketching out those scenes and/or writing a tentative draft of them ahead of time due to the tight schedule, but now I’ve got everything I need to fill them in.
Facebook fans have seen a few of the trip pics I’ve posted, but I’ll post a couple here as well (see below).
I stayed at The Olivier House and loved it. Our room had older style furnishings, which is what I wanted, but it also had modern amenities like a television and cable. With the final World Cup games taking place while there, this was particularly important to the husband. I’ll confess to not watching, but I do want to congratulate Germany for their win!
I’m also excited to let you all know my cover artist and typographer finished the cover for Darkness Clashes during the trip. It looks amazing! I’ll be revealing it exclusively with Bitten by Books on July 25th, but will post a link here as a reminder on that day so you can check it out as well as the official blurb. For now you all will have to satisfy yourselves with the new website header (top of this page) that has a never-seen-before pose of Lucas and Melena. No, it is not the one on the cover. This shot was taken for promo purposes only.
That’s it for now on updates. It’s back to the grindstone for me so I can have this book ready by the end of next month. Hope all of you are having a great summer 🙂
Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I’m happy to let you all know that Playing with Darkness, book 3.5 of the Sensor Series, has now been uploaded to all the retailers. As of now Amazon and Barnes & Noble customers can grab their copies. Hopefully Kobo and iTunes will follow soon. For those of you who requested the novella ahead of time, I have sent out PDF copies to your emails. If you haven’t heard from me and you were supposed to, please do let me know.
This story came to just over 16k words. Much shorter than my other books, but I hope it helps tide you all over until Darkness Clashes releases. There is some fun with Kerbasi and for those who need a bit of Lucas and Melena time, there’s some of that in there, too. Hope you all enjoy it!
SUMMARY:
There’s no avoiding it. Melena must keep her promise to return the fae device that opens the portal to Purgatory. Except there’s one problem—Kerbasi. How can she go when she has one of heaven’s minions practically attached to her hip? One who will strike fear in the hearts of the fae the moment they realize who he is.
When her shape-shifter cat suddenly gets sick, she can’t delay the trip any longer. Only the fae can help get Sable healthy again. And if Kerbasi tries to cause any trouble while they are there, she’ll just have to find creative ways to keep him in line.
Purchase links: