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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

COVER REVEAL - I Am Forever by Wynne Channing

I love Wynne Channing. She is so sweet, and lovely, and one of the nicest people I've met since I embarked on my own Indie journey. She also happens to be a totally kick-ass, awesome writer, and I'm so happy to be part of the cover reveal for I Am Forever. Check it out! I think I love this more than the cover for What Kills Me which is one of my favourite book covers.

I Am Forever - lo-res

Introducing I Am Forever, the highly-anticipated sequel to Wynne Channing's best-selling debut novel What Kills Me. Check out the teaser synopsis for the second book in the series which is due out in Winter 2013:

The prophecy said a girl would kill them all.

Against an army of vampires, Axelia fought back and survived. Once fated as the destroyer of the vampire race, she is now welcomed into the immortal empire and revered as a god. But she is not safe. The empire is rife with danger and deceit — and Axelia and her companion, Lucas, are caught in the middle of a bloody war.

With everyone's lives at stake, Axelia must battle to protect those she loves.




Sign up to be notified of it's release and for early excerpts, here!

If you haven't yet read the exhilarating first book, What Kills Me, which has an impressive 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Amazon (179 reviews), buy it here:


What Kills Me Cover SmallAn ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race. So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive. How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?



About Wynne: Wynne Channing is an national newspaper reporter and best-selling young adult novelist. Wynne loves telling stories and as a journalist, she has interviewed everyone from Daniel Radcliffe and Hugh Jackman to the president of the Maldives and Duchess Sarah Ferguson. The closest she has come to interviewing a vampire is sitting down with True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard (he didn’t bite). She briefly considered calling her debut novel “Well” so then everyone would say: “Well written by Wynne Channing.”
cropped headshot

 Connect with Wynne
Twitter: wynnechanning

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Book Signing Day - Here's how it went down...

Last weekend I had my first book signing. Well, that’s what I called it anyway. It was more of a stall at my local markets, but I signed some books, so let’s just call it a signing. There was laughing, and crying (I’ll get to that in a minute), and I had an awesome day.

A few months back I was chatting to a mum at school where my little people go, and she had the wonderful idea that I come along to the local markets and have my books available to sign. I thought this was a wonderful idea, so I chose a month and we went from there.

Creative Berowra is a group of awesome people that promote creativity in my community. They run the local creative markets on the second Sunday of every month, and if you’d like to know more, go and check out the website HERE.

If you hang around my Facebook page you may have seen a pic I posted of some pull-up table banners I had printed for my books. I had so much fun organising my table for the day, and I’m really pleased with how everything looked.


Now, I’m a pretty small fish in the big sea of Indie publishing—think guppy versus whale shark. (I was going to say blue whale, but the whale is not a fish!) So, I didn’t get my hopes up. My advertising for this event was pretty minimal, and I went into it with an open mind and the philosophy that if I sold one book, I’d be happy. Well, I managed to sell thirteen books in the three hours I was there. I know that’s not huge, and most of them were to people I know in some way—it’s a relatively small community—but I was pretty happy with the outcome. I now have more (local) people reading my work. Yay!

Huge thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, Kylie, for coming and sitting with me. I think I would have gone stir-crazy if I didn’t have someone to talk to when I wasn’t signing one of the thirteen books I sold.

Lastly, I mentioned there was crying. It’s because this happened…


This is the wonderful Lauren from Aussie Owned and Read. She came down from the coast just to see me and buy a copy of Sacrifice. She made me feel so special, and I actually cried when she gave me these…


It’s the little things that mean so much, and it’s all the feels I get when I do things like this that make my Indie journey so worthwhile.

K x

Monday, July 15, 2013

What I've Been Working on - My Next Title

A month or so ago I said I was taking a break from my angels and vampires to work on another story. I'm a little bit behind my own schedule because life seems to happen around us when we least expect it, but now the time has come to let the first little bits of this new project into the world.

All the info is below:

Title: Immagica
Genre: YA Fantasy
Word Count: around 60k
Cover Reveal: August 23rd 2013
Publication Date: late 2013 (hopefully)

Book Blurb:


Where anything is possible, but not always controllable

Enter at your own risk

The night before her fifteenth birthday, Rosaline Clayton receives an amulet from her deranged father. He tells her she must find the book, and begs her to save him. Rosaline is used to her father not making any sense, and she dismisses their conversation as another of his crazy rants.

Rosaline and her younger brother, Elliot, find the old, leather-bound book tucked away in their Nana’s attic, and it sucks them into its pages. They land in a magical world where anything is possible, but when Rosaline and Elliot are separated, the only thing Rosaline wants is to find her brother and go home.

The creatures of Immagica have other ideas. Rosaline befriends a black unicorn, two fairies, and a girl named Brynn, who are under threat from a menacing dragon. Rosaline discovers she is bound to Immagica in ways she doesn’t understand, and the fate of this magical world rests entirely on her shoulders.


K x

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Indie Life - The Day I was Left Speechless


Welcome to my Indie Life post for July. This is a monthly feature posted on the second Wednesday of the month and hosted by the Indelibles. The aim is to promote, encourage, and support indie authors.

Last month I told you all about the awesome Lawrence Mann and his awesome art. Well, two days ago I got the best email in the history of emails in my inbox. Ever!

It was the final illustration for the cover of my current WIP.

I was speechless.

There were no words...

I still don't have the right words to explain how happy I am about this JPEG file, because I'm convinced the word(s) I'm looking for just don't exist.

This is the best part about being an Indie. The little (or in this case pretty big) things that when put together with other little (or big) things, make up the whole. And the knowledge that I must be doing something right. I put my faith in someone else and boy has it paid off!

I haven't released any details about this current WIP (because I'm mean) but, I can tell you there will be a cover reveal happening on August 23rd with Xpresso Book Tours.

Details for the book will be released by the end of July.

I'd love to hear about your cover experiences. What was your reaction when you first saw your book's cover? Let me know in the comments.

Until then, keep being the awesome Indies that you are.

K x

PS: I'm having a rather bracket-y kind of day. Usually it's the em-dash, but I thought I'd go with brackets this time.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Northern Bites by Nikki Jefford - It's Almost Here!

Are you a book blogger who enjoys reading NA urban fantasy?

Most of you know I'm a huge fan of Nikki's work. Well, here's your chance to sign up to review her next book, Northern Bites. Details below...

Northern Bites ARCs are now available in pdf. This is volume 2 of Nikki Jefford's Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series with a sci-fi twist set in Alaska.

Sign-up HERE for an ARC of Northern Bites.

It is not necessary to read Vol. 1 to understand what's happening in Vol. 2, but you are welcome to request a review copy of the first book, Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Transfusion, at the end of the form.

The book will be published July 30th.

Love bites.

Probation sucks.

Thanks to Dante’s recklessness, Aurora is now partners with Valerie: the redheaded, backstabbing vixen.

Dante is in full flirt mode. Fane’s tactics are far more ruthless. Something carnal has awakened in Aurora and neither boy is helping tame her cravings.

When a member of the unit’s team is found dead, Aurora and Valerie are sent after a vampire in Sitka, but Aurora suspects the killer’s much closer to home.

Northern Bites Theme Song: Kill of the Night
listen at YouTube


CLICK HERE to sign-up for an ARC 


K x

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Elsker by S.T. Bende - REVIEW and NA Crush Tourney Goodies

To vote #TeamUll in the NA Crush Tourney

Review
I first heard of Elsker by S.T. Bende when one of my fellow Aussie Owned and Read girls was signed by Entranced Publishing. I must admit it wasn’t a high priority on my TBR, but after Aussie Owned and Read became an advocate for Ull in the NA Crush Tourney, I thought I better check it out.

Elsker is a little different to anything I’ve read in the past. I love books that are centred on mythology, which is why I’m a huge fan of the Percy Jackson series, but I’ve never read anything containing Norse mythology before. The extent of my knowledge when it comes to these gods is checking out Chris Hemsworth in Thor and The Avengers.

Elsker is a great mix of romance and mythology. Kristia has visions which have labelled her a bit crazy in her small, one-stoplight town. She decides to spend her last year of university abroad and heads to Wales where she meets the god of winter, Ull. Things get off to a rocky start between them, but before long they are putty in each other’s hands. I wish I was Ull’s putty!

The Norse mythology is seamlessly woven throughout the story, and neither the romance nor the mythology element is overbearing. The only thing I had a little trouble with was Kristia’s acceptance of Ull’s godliness. But I figured she was weird enough with having her own visions, who was she to judge a guy that just told her he was a god?

Ull, although his mood swung like an out of control pendulum, is the perfect gentleman, and I love how S.T. Bende has built his characterand all the other charactersin Elsker. Thor in particular amused me, and Gunnar and Inga were a great duo.

Elsker is a quick and enjoyable read. The story ends in a good place, but it has certainly left me wanting more of Ull and his world. I'm itching for the epic love and the epic battle. Four out of five feathers.

Now, I'm off to try my hand at that waffle recipe.


#TeamUll Promo
I had so much fun designing the banners, graphics, and putting together a little video to support this hunky Norse God, and I had even more fun reading about him. Check out the #TeamUll promotional media below.





 
 

K x