Download GUARDIAN and LABYRINTH for free! #CreepyHollow

The first two stories in the Creepy Hollow series, GUARDIAN and LABYRINTH, are reaching the end of their 90 day KDP Select period (today is the very last day, actually), and since I have some unused free promotional days, I've made these two novelettes FREE FOR TODAY, 31 July!

GUARDIAN Amazon US | Amazon UK


LABYRINTH Amazon US | Amazon UK

If you feel like being awesome (and who doesn't want to be awesome?!) and tweeting or Facebooking, these are the links you can copy and paste:

GUARDIAN   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FRJGXI

LABYRINTH   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QLX9G8

(And MASQUERADE is almost ready to make its appearance!)

A big THANK YOU plus RAOK!

So ... Do ya wanna know how many downloads I got of Guardian during the free promo over the weekend? Well, do ya, do ya?! I'm gonna tell you anyway ;-) The grand total is ...

2377

Highlight the space above with your mouse. I hid the number in a white font, hehe ;-)

Wheeeeeeee! Maybe you've done massively well with your own promos, and you think that number's kinda piddly (it's a real word, promise), but I think it's FANTASTIC! And it's thanks to all you guys who downloaded and tweeted and Facebooked and all that jazz. So here is my big

THANK YOU!

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU

For anyone who's interested in sales numbers and stats and things (like me!) I'm going to do a more detailed post at the end of this week.

~  ~  ~

RAOK

A few weeks back, Rach Harrie bestowed an awesome Random Act of Kindness (RAOK) upon me. I've been wanting to do my own RAOK (you know, spread the kindness and all that!) but I have been insanely busy recently. So NOW seems like an excellent time to be kind and give stuff away!

I'm going to give away 4 copies of the Creepy Hollow story that was released on Friday (which, according to Amazon - see the pic below - is a Hot New Release!). You don't have to follow me or "Like" a page or leave a comment or jump through a flaming hoop. You just have to ENTER! (And tweet if you want a few additional entries ;-))

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GUARDIAN Kindle ebook is FREE 05/26 and 05/27!

FREEBIE TIME!!

In celebration of the release of TRAITOR,

for today and tomorrow (05/26 and 05/27) you can download 

GUARDIAN for free from Amazon!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

I would really, REALLY appreciate it if you could tweet or spread the word in any way! You can copy and tweet the following message, or write your own:

GUARDIAN, the first novelette in the #CreepyHollow series is FREE till the end of this weekend! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FRJGXI #Kindle #ebook

And a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who's already spread the word for me. GUARDIAN has got onto some Amazon best seller lists and is slowly climbing up them :-) (It's also unhealthily addictive watching the download numbers of my KDP Reports page go up!)

Click to enlarge.

GUARDIAN Giveaway Winners Announced!

I know you're just going to scroll right past this to see if your name is down there, but AFTER you've done that, perhaps you could check out the last official stop for the blog tour. Bree from The Magic Attic (such a cool blog name. I totally wish I had a magic attic) is posting a book review of GUARDIAN tonight. Thanks for ending off the blog tour, Bree!




There were sooooo many entries for the giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal (294 entries) that instead of picking one winner for that giveaway, I decided to pick THREE!

THE WINNERS ARE:

Giveaway on Rachel Morgan Writes

An ecopy of Creepy Hollow #1 and Creepy Hollow #2, plus a $20 Amazon gift card

Sher A Hart

Giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Beatriz
Filia
Anna

Giveaway on In Time . . .

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Irika

Giveaway on The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Sheena-kay

Congratulations, winners! I shall be contacting you via email. And THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who made this blog tour and the launch of the Creepy Hollow series so much fun for me! You guys are incredible!

~  ~  ~

Come back tomorrow to see the

cover reveal

of LABYRINTH, the second installment in the Creepy Hollow series.

(For those of you who have bought and read GUARDIAN, this won't be a surprise, as the cover for LABYRINTH is included at the end of GUARDIAN, but for everyone else, you should definitely pop by to see it!)

A Chat with Violet and Ryn

• Today the crazy-awesome Colene Murphy is sitting in between Violet and Ryn interviewing both of them. You should really (really!) check it out. (I had a ton of fun writing it!)

• And there is one last author interview for the blog tour, this one by Jessica Therrien (who is currently finishing off her own blog tour!).

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

COME BACK TOMORROW TO SEE ALL 

THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .
The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

Do You See Your Writing As A Career?

• Another interview! You can get to know even more about me (like which fictional character I'd like to be, and whether I see writing as a career) at Laura Josephsen's blog, Everything you didn't want to know about writing.

• The awesome Golden Eagle (looking regal up there) is posting a book review on The Eagle's Aerial Perspective (and there is ANOTHER giveaway!).

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Voting has now opened for the A to Z Video Challenge. You can view my entry here, and you can click here to vote on the A to Z Challenge website. Thanks! (I mean, if you vote for mine. If you don't vote for mine... well, thanks for watching it anyway!)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .
The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

So do you see your writing as a career?

Book Boyfriends, Interviews and Creating Cover Love

• Some Like it Paranormal is getting a double dose of me today. Jennifer is interviewing me and she's reviewing GUARDIAN. *Edit: And she made Nate her book boyfriend this week!

• And, as if one interrogation isn't enough for the day, I'm also being interviewed by Heather at Buried in Books!

• This isn't part of the blog tour BUT it is still super cool. Stina Lindenblatt posted an article today on the QueryTraker blog entitled Creating Cover Love, and GUARDIAN is at the top of the article!

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In other non-breaking, non-exciting news, I have added a Linky Followers gadget to my blog because, well, I saw other bloggers doing it (even though they're on Blogger and won't lose their GFC followers) and thought, Yeah, okay, I'll do that too. (Wow, I'm such a sheep!)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Chatting with Characters

• Today is Fantasy Tuesday over at Cherie Reich - Author, and I'm talking about The Fantasy World of Creepy Hollow.

• Lindsay gets to chat with Nate for a character interview at Just Another Book Addict, and she's also posting a book review of GUARDIAN.

• And Madeleine Maddocks asks me a few tough questions over at Scribble and Edit!

~  ~  ~

Today's randomness: I visited Hunger Names to find out my Hunger Games name and which district I would have been from. Apparently my name is Chamomile Dundermifflin. I'm cool with the Chamomile part, not so much the Dundermifflin. I was a District 10 tribute in the 66th Hunger Games and I died of a snake bite. How fitting since I am, in fact, really scared of snakes!

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .

Easy Steps To Creating An eBook Cover

• If you're at all interested in the steps involved in creating a book cover (I, for one, thought it was lots of fun!), you should visit Michael at In Time . . . 'cause that's what I'm talking about over there today. (PLUS there is a giveaway happening on his blog!)

• As well as that, you can find a book review of GUARDIAN at Chapter by Chapter. Thanks, MaryAnn!

If you look over on the side there ---> you'll see that my blog follower count has reached the awesome round number 500! I wanted to link to the 500th follower, honey.munev, but I can't find a link for her . . . But thank you ALL OF YOU for following this blog! It has been going for a little under two years, and I had NO idea when I started what an awesome world I was about to find myself in!

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .

The Glorious Torture of The Series

Happy weekend, everyone!

• On this fine Saturday I am being interrogated interviewed by Melodie (the lovely purple flowers above) at Forever Rewrighting in a post she has entitled "How To Launch A Series".

• I'm back at Trisha's W O R D + S T U F F talking about my love of The Series (both the book and TV kind. Yay for series!).

• And Rachel (another Rachel! Awesome!) is featuring GUARDIAN on The~Rest~Is~Still~Unwritten by posting a super review and a fun excerpt.

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal

Why Do I Write Fiction For Teens?

• Today I'm talking about why I write YA fiction over at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective.

• And Trisha at W O R D + S T U F F (who's giving Eagle a wary look up there!) is posting a book review of GUARDIAN. Thanks, Trisha! Can't wait to read it! *UPDATE: Ohmygosh, Trisha's review is the kind you print out and keep nearby and reread when you're having down days, 'cause it just makes me so happy :-)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal

Kick-Ass Heroines & Some Creepy Hollow Characters

• Today I'm visiting Some Like It Paranormal to talk about heroines that can kick villain-butt instead of waiting around for some guy to kick it for them (and there's a giveaway!).

• Vi and Nate get to introduce themselves over at Abby Minard's blog.

• And Madeleine Maddocks is doing a book review at Scribble and Edit.

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Some Like It Paranormal

When Your Dream Goes Off On A Tangent (Without Your Permission)

Here's what's happening today:

• When your dream goes off on a tangent and you're all like, "Hey! Dude. I'm over here! Get back!" And your dream is like, "Whatevs, man. I'm going this way. Meet you there." And after having a mini tantrum you realize your dream is having fun without you, so you give in and follow it off into the happy tangent sunset. Yeah. So that's what I'm talking about over at Sarah Pearson's Empty White Pages for the Insecure Writer's Support Group today!

• And Cherie Reich is posting a book review made of all kinds of awesome on Surrounded by Books Reviews.

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

I'm On Video!

Kicking off the blog tour awesomeness we have Cally, Misha and Soumi!

• Okay, so I got really brave and decided to do a VIDEO interview today for Cally Jackson Writes. Scary!

•  I'm also talking about YA Stereotypes over at Misha Gericke's My First Book.

•  And Soumi at Pages From My Thoughts is posting a review of GUARDIAN.

~  ~  ~

I want to say another MAJOR THANK YOU to everyone who posted about GUARDIAN on their blogs yesterday. It was loads of fun visiting all of you and seeing my pretty cover getting around :-)

Also, I obviously have NO idea how Amazon Bestseller lists work. Before I uploaded GUARDIAN I did all this research on all the different categories and sub-categories in the Kindle Store -- you know, how many results came up for each one, searching keywords within each of those categories. But when I came to choosing categories in the upload section, they didn't match the categories in the Kindle Store! (Me: ????) Anyway, I ended up going with Fiction > Fantasy > Short Stories and Fiction > Fantasy > Contemporary. So... today I woke up and saw that my book was #90 in Books > Science Fiction and Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies. Like, how does that happen when I didn't put it there?! 'Cos, um, it's not an anthology!

Is there anyone who can explain to me how it works?

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:

Rachel Morgan Writes

Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1) Is NOW AVAILABLE!

The Creepy Hollow novelette series launches today!!!
The first book, GUARDIAN, is now available.

Squeeee!!!

Source

Thank you so, so, so much to all these wonderful people who are posting about the launch of GUARDIAN on their blogs today:

Abby Minard | Alex Cavanaugh | Brooke Busse | Carrie Butler | Cherie Reich |
Colene Murphy | Damyanti | Donna Hole | Jennifer Messerschmidt | Jessica Bell | Jessica Therrien
Joshua | Kittie Howard | Laura Josephsen | Michael Di Gessu | Misha Gericke | Rebecca Enzor
Sarah Pearson | Siv Maria | Talli Roland | Theresa Milstein | Tia Bach (DC)
Tia Bach (MiLwF) | Trisha

If you want to see some early reviews, check these out:
Buried in Books
In Time... 
Kittie Howard

Today I am Celebrating a List of Firsts:

First person to love my story and assure me I had a "winner": Kittie Howard
First to mention adding GUARDIAN to a to-read list: Jenn Soehnlin
First to comment on my cover reveal post: Carrie Butler
First blog sidebar I found my cover on: Madeleine Maddocks
First to add GUARDIAN on Goodreads: Cherie Reich
First to post a review on Goodreads: Laura Josephsen
First to post a shameless punt on Facebook*: Tim Slatter
*see the comment below from my crazy-awesome cousin Tim!

Thank you for all the firsts! Each and every one gave me warm fuzzy feelings ;-)

Here's to many more firsts!

1. Receive assignment. 

2. Save a life. 

3. Sleep. 

4. Repeat. 

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion. 

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Where to find GUARDIAN online:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

AND NOW FOR A MAJOR GIVEAWAY!
(If you can't see the giveaway widget, click the "Read More" button)

(Book 1 and the $20 Amazon gift card will be emailed to the winner as soon as this giveaway is over. Book 2 will be emailed once it has been published, in early April.)

To enter, click on one of the "Login" button, fill in your name and email (this is so I can contact you if you win) and for each of the possible ways to enter, just click "Do It" and follow the instructions!

The Awesomeness of March

2012 has been quite a year so far for launching fellow bloggers' books:

We had Cherie Reich with DEFYING GRAVITY.
Then came Laura Josephsen with RISING BOOK 1: RESISTANCE.
After that, Jessica Therrien released OPPRESSION, and Alex J Cavanaugh released CASSAFIRE on the same day.

And now that March is here . . . 

IT'S MY TURN!

CREEPY HOLLOW is a series of paranormal fantasy novelettes.

And it's almost here!

Starting off the celebrations early we have Michael over at In Time... who posted this gorgeous review , and Kittie Howard who posted this sparkling review. Thanks, Michael and Kittie!

Monday the 5th of March is officially release day for GUARDIAN. I've already got some super-fantastic bloggers who are posting a launch announcement on their blogs on Monday. If you'd like to be one of these splendiferous people who helps me get the word out there about GUARDIAN, you can click here (or on the tab at the top of this blog that says Creepy Hollow Launch Day Announcement) and follow the instructions on that page (and I will be eternally grateful!).

Following the launch on Monday, GUARDIAN and I will be touring the blogosphere on the blog tour of awesomeness. Have you checked out the line-up of blogs taking part?

Six Sentence Sunday (5)

You can find all the other participants at the Six Sentence Sunday website. And I actually remembered to get my name on the list in time this week!

These six sentences come from GUARDIAN, my novelette that launches at the beginning of March.

Then I think of what I’m about to lose because of him. I could be expelled, or, at the very least, suspended. All my training could be for nothing. All the blood, the bruises, the pain. The nightmares that come after having to kill someone. I may have gone through that for nothing—all because this boy couldn’t just stay in his damn bedroom.

Title: The Iron King
Author: Julie Kagawa

We were born of the dreams and fears of mortals, and if we are remembered, even in some small way, we will always exist.

~

"What in Pan's privates is this?" the goblin chief snorted.

So there you have it: one line of magical beauty, and another of, uh, less beauty! (But it sure did make me laugh!)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Follow the link for instructions!

~ ~ ~

Last week on Teaser Tuesday I had just got GUARDIAN onto Goodreads and added it to a few listopia lists. Thank you to all of you for adding GUARDIAN to you to-read lists, and for voting on the listopia lists! GUARDIAN has reached:

#3 out of 65 in New Series (2012) (It actually got to #1 for a little bit! Thanks, guys!) 

#58 out of 199 in Indie Books - Paranormal Cover Love

#120 out of 270 in Amazing Covers of 2012

Teaser Tuesday (19): Clockwork Prince

 
Title: Clockwork Prince
Author: Cassandra Clare

  "I promise to charm the dickens out of him," said Will, sitting up and readjusting his crushed hat. "I shall charm him with such force that when I am done, he will be left lying limply on the ground, trying to remember his own name."

  "The man's eighty-nine," muttered Jem. "He may well have that problem anyway."


I almost laughed out loud when I read those lines ;-)




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Follow the link for instructions!

~ ~ ~

GUARDIAN is now on Goodreads! And while I was having fun playing around on the Goodreads site, I added my darling baby to three lists:

Indie Books - Paranormal Cover Love (#108 out of 199)
Amazing Covers of 2012 (#162 out of 255)
New Series 2012 (#12 out of 45)

It would be awesome (read as: pleasepleaseplease!) if you could vote for one (or, you know, all!) of those lists! Especially the New Series 2012 one. Since it's short I have a good chance of actually getting somewhere on it!

I also have a countdown widget now. Pretty cool (and a little scary!) to see the time ticking away until GUARDIAN is officially available to all... If you're interested in adding the countdown widget to your sidebar, copy and past the following purple text into an HTML gadget under the Layout tab on your blog. Thank you!!

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget('7644e9df-bec2-4159-b829-ff2d7b7d7361');</script>
<noscript>Get the <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/i/7644e9df-bec2-4159-b829-ff2d7b7d7361">Countdown Creator Pro</a> widget and many other <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/">great free widgets</a> at <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com">Widgetbox</a>! Not seeing a widget? (<a href="http://support.widgetbox.com/">More info</a>)</noscript>

Cover Reveal for GUARDIAN, Creepy Hollow #1

[Note: this post may contain an excess of exclamation marks.]

Alrighty. Here it is!!!!

So... What do you think?! You're allowed to be honest ;-) Though if you want to say that you hate it, it might be nicer to keep that to yourself! I -- obviously -- am super excited about it!!

Yes, she's meant to have purple eyes and purple in her hair, which I think is super cool. I once died my hair "blackcurrent" (according to the box) but if I was really brave I'd go real purple, like Vi up there (though hers in natural. Yup, you heard me. Natural).

(Something I've never noticed until recently is that not all computer screens are made equal in terms of colour. Yeah, okay, so maybe that's obvious to some of you, I just never had a reason to think about it before! Anyway, on my one screen she looks awesomely brightly purple, and on my other she looks kinda meh-purple-blue :-( )

~ ~ ~

Summary for GUARDIAN:

1. Receive assignment.

2. Save a life.

3. Sleep.

4. Repeat.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Watch the book trailer for the series.