Crescendo Release Day & Print Book Giveaway!

Howdy folks! Today's the big day--Crescendo's official release day! It's now available at Amazon, ARe, and other major retailers, as well as at Storm Moon Press, of course. And can I just say? Nervous and excited author is nervous and excited. A lot of people have been waiting for this book for almost fifteen months. I worked on this series for three years. I'm very anxious to see if readers find it the satisfying conclusion to the story that I did. One reviewer's posted so far, and it was a lovely review (thank you, M/M Good Book Reviews!), but I'll still be holding my breath for at least a couple weeks.

While I'm suffocating myself, I thought I'd also celebrate and say "Thank you" to all you amazing, wonderful, spectacular readers by giving away a print copy of Crescendo. They won't be out until December, but when they arrive, I'll sign one and put it in the mail to one lucky commenter on this post. I'll draw a winner next Friday.

Some other news as well. As you've probably noticed, it's been a bit quiet round these parts lately. Between Riptide and my own writing, I'm starting to have trouble keeping up with the blog. I still very much want this to be a place where people can come and enjoy themselves, and I'll update at least once a week, but the schedule's going to start getting a little less regular.

Also, did a ton of updates on my website today. Lots of new info for my two new releases (Crescendo and Master Class), and also some new bits on the upcoming works page, mostly about the Kinkapalooza novel I'm co-writing with Cat Grant. We only started putting words to paper less than two weeks ago, but Cat and I have already accidentally won NaNo :-p Almost 60,000 words in already, and no signs of the end yet. This book is gonna be a friggin' doorstop of kink. Very, very excited about it; it feels amazing to be writing again after taking so much time off to focus all my energy on Riptide.

Hmm, I think that's it for now. I'm at a couple different places today: you can read a nice excerpt from Crescendo and maybe win a copy of Counterpoint at Laura Kaye's blog, and I have a guest post at Naughty Boys in the Backseat on the only-half-immortal problem. (Trust me, it's a big problem :-p)

If you've already read Crescendo, do let me know what you think, even if you hated it. If you haven't, say hello anyway to get yourself entered in the giveaway. I'll ship anywhere in the world.

Hugs and love to you all--I'm feeling particularly bouncy today :D

A Milestone Week!

Happy Monday, all! Two pretty awesome things happened to me since last we spoke:

1. I just wrapped up edits on Crescendo about ten minutes ago. (Click to embiggen the pretty.) It's all over now but for the copyedit pass. I feel, oh, about fifty pounds lighter than I did last night :D

2. OMGOMGOMGOMG RIPTIDE! :O :O :O Hang on, I'll try to stop squeeing long enough to de-cat-macro . . . *deep breath* Okay, yeah, so, on October 1, Riptide Publishing unveiled its new web store and opened for pre-orders. (Every book you pre-order gets you entered into a contest for free books for a year, yay!) We also began our official Grand Opening Celebration, also known as "the 300-stop, multi-author blog tour with thousands and thousands of dollars in prizes."

It's been quite the wild ride already. We're hearing lots of great feedback about our site, and particularly about our innovative warning and tagging system for every book. It'd take a while to explain, so let me just point you at my shiny Master Class book page and tell you to check out all those fancy tabs and toggles at the bottom, especially the "additional details" one. Go on, I'll wait.

Welcome back! (Did you buy stuff? ;-p) Seriously, how neat is that site feature? Isn't that awesome? I'd love to see that everywhere I shop.

So, couple quick tour links for you:

On Saturday, I was at Amara's Place with partners Aleks and Chris for the official ribbon cutting, and there's a loooooooooooooong interview there that I think will be interesting to anyone who's ever wondered what's involved in launching a business.

Also on Saturday, Brief Encounters did a lovely review of Master Class (4.5 stars, yay!), and on Sunday I did a guest blog about the psychological aspects of BDSM there. There are some interesting conversations going on in the comments; I hope you'll come join us!

In the not-all-about-me tour news, Storm Grant had an interview at Literary Nymphs on Saturday, where she was her usual hilarious self. And on Sunday, Peter Hansen was at Loves Books and More discussing the conceits of youth and how WWF chair-bashing fits into your standard writing workshop curriculum :D Today, Brita Addams kicks off an entire week at Amara's Place with a great interview; and Aleks Voinov is over at Erotica For All, dishing on his latest crush, among other things.

Tomorrow I'll be at Erotica For All, too, but I can't for the life of me remember what Lucy interviewed me about. Whatever it was? It was probably awesome. And hey, even if it wasn't, remember that every comment you leave on the tour enters you for a chance to win about a bazillion prizes, so even if I bore you to death, you should still stop on by and throw your hat in for that iPad ;-)

Monday Picspam & a Deal on Counterpoint

Yep, still crazy deadlines, which means more picspam for you :-) I'm doing a final sanity check on Aleks Voinov's absolutely FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC Belonging-verse novel Counterpunch tonight, and I'd forgotten between the spring and now just how much I loved it when he was writing it. Now that he's given it a good hard polish, it's even more amazing. (See for yourself--you can read an excerpt [and win a Kindle!] at the publisher's website.)

So, in celebration of that, I'm posting some hot hot boxers today a few non-copyrighted gifs and screencaps (other pictures likely belonged to someone and had no business being here in the first place, and have thus been deleted) beneath the jump.

Two quick notes before the picspam begins.

First, with the Crescendo release date looming close, my publishers have gotten together to offer both Counterpoint (the first book in the Song of the Fallen series) and Crescendo at 20% off when purchased directly through the publishers' websites. This is the cheapest it's ever been, so if you've been waiting to get it, now's a good time.

Second, OMG, the Riptide Publishing Grand Opening Celebration is just around the corner! See that shiny banner in my left sidebar? Click it! There's lots of exciting new stuff on the Riptide website and more to come, and our first stop on the party tour begins September 23 at Amara's Place with lots of fun and prizes and behind-the-scenes peeks at our first eight titles.

Okay, now picspam. And yep, I still managed to work in Fassavoy, and a bonus Til Schweiger! As always, click to embiggen.

Film Festival Fun

This one's a quickie, folks. I'm still neck deep in Crescendo edits and the Riptide Publishing launch, but I found out today that thanks to the lovely Cat Grant, I'll actually be getting a teeny little mini-vacation in a little over a month: the two of us are taking a day trip into Manhattan to see Shame at the NY Film Festival!

I am dying of excitement about this, not so much for going to Manhattan (it's sort of right around the corner from me, and I lived there for a while so the sheen's worn off), but for getting to see the new Steve McQueen movie starring every last full-frontal inch of my favorite obsession. Despite the Oscar buzz already coming out of the Venice Film Festival for Shame, the contents of the movie (and the director's admirable unwillingness to sacrifice artistic vision for commercialism) make it unlikely it'll ever see US distribution outside the festival circuit.

Fortunately, we have tickets, so I get to spend one glorious day off from editing and writing and launching a business (which, admittedly, I am loving just about every second of) to stare at 90 minutes of this, a large portion of which I'm told involve no pants. (Click to embiggen. Trust me.)

Aw heck, one more because he's just so absurdly adorable. (And is it just me or does that totally look like a ligature mark on his wrist? Okay, yeah, it's probably just me, but a girl can dream, right?) The photo call at Venice, beneath the jump:

Crescendo Sneak Peek #6

It seems like all I've talked about the last week or so is the weather, so it's time for something fun, yeah? How about a little Crescendo excerpt? The entire first chapter is available on my website and at Storm Moon Press (where you can still pre-order at 20% off, yay!), so I thought I'd give you a peek of what comes immediately after.

First, a quick (*sigh*) weather-related update for those who've been asking: Floodwaters have mostly receded. Repairs are going well, though I think a new species of  hyper-intelligent mold in my basement has just discovered fire and the wheel. Irritatingly, utilities decided to shut off a bit over two days ago and have barely done much in the way of coming back on. Even the phone's been out. I'm sneaking on now in a rare moment of up-time and praying that everything stays on for good this time.

Now then, back to a nice fat 1500-word excerpt from Crescendo. Please note this may not match the version you see in the final text (in other words, this is still mid-edit, though it's certainly clean enough for public consumption.) All the, er, fun? Beneath the jump.

Crescendo Release Date Moved

Hi all. As I'd suspected on Monday, the Crescendo release date has been moved due to hurricane Irene. The next available slot in my publisher's schedule is November 18, so that's when Crescendo will be releasing. Folks who pre-order will still be able to download it two days early.

This mess? Is what it looked like yesterday just four miles from me.

Yeah, that's the National Guard not having any more luck than anyone else.

I don't usually get up on my soapbox, but if you live anywhere near any of the hard-hit areas and can donate blood to the Red Cross, it's desperately needed. If you're not (or are) in the area and want to help, you can donate funds to the Red Cross. Or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.

My home is far enough from any of the nearby rivers to have missed the serious flooding, but I did and do have a mess to clean up. The job is compounded by the fact that towns are completely isolated here--few to no roads open in and out, supermarkets closed, sketchy or no power (mine just went out for an hour while I was trying to make this blog post), bridges (and highways, oddly enough) washed away, etc. While I'm in the middle of all this, please don't worry if it takes me a few days to answer an email or if I drop off the radar completely. Like I said, power outages are still an issue, and I don't have a smartphone, so when it goes I lose my internet and can't get out to go find it somewhere else.

In the meanwhile, I hope you'll consider donating blood or money or both (er, but not blood money, kay?) to help the thousands of people who've lost everything this week and are still stuck in Red Cross shelters, waiting to go home. Also please consider shopping with Candlemark & Gleam, a lovely independent speculative fiction press who is donating 100% of the sale price of their ebooks to Vermont victims of Irene.

Irene Update, Crescendo News

Good morning, all! Those of you who frequent Fantasy Unbound know this to be a pretty relentlessly happy place, but I'm afraid I have some potentially bad news for fans of Crescendo today, and it's going to involve a little bit of explanation that veers toward the sort of thing I usually would rather not discuss, but since it affects anyone waiting for Crescendo, I think you deserve to know. (If you're short on time, scroll down to the bottom for the tl;dr version.)

Good news first about Irene, though. Actually, it's all pretty related, so . . .

Irene veered east at the last second, and the eye of the storm--and the most damaging winds--missed us. Miraculously, we kept power (excepting a long series of brownouts during landfall), despite hundreds of thousands of people all around us losing theirs. We have water damage, my whole house smells like a swamp,  the local river flooding is catastrophic and only getting worse (people in town have water up to the second floor of their homes, and the rivers won't even crest until tomorrow), and my dad still hasn't been allowed back to his house to inspect the damage (he lives about 100 feet from the beach), but we're all safe. (Give it a week; I suppose the mold might kill me? :-p) I hope everyone else was at least as fortunate.

Now, to explain what this has to do with Crescendo, I need to back up a few months.

Very late into the process of getting Crescendo ready, I learned my dear publisher, Guiltless Pleasure, was closing down due to a serious illness with the owner (she is well on the mend now, thank goodness). Storm Moon Press stepped in and offered to publish Crescendo on a ridiculously tight timeline, since the release date had been set a year back from Guiltless Pleasure and I very much wanted to stick to it if I could.

This meant that everything was crazy compressed, and there was much less time to focus on things like edits and production than anyone was entirely comfortable with. Neither myself nor my new publisher were willing to deliver anything less than the very best we were capable of, so we all started putting in long, intense hours to make it happen.

That meant every hour of every day was both precious and critical to hitting the release date. Fast-forward to Irene. I lost half a week preparing for the storm and the inevitable flooding, since this isn't the sort of thing we're generally ready for up in these parts. Stupid things like buying batteries for my flashlights could take hours and trips to several sold-out stores. All the furniture (and junk stored) in the basement needed to be moved. Good thing we did, as I was up all night helping my sump pump bail the basement out. The flooding's slowed but hasn't stopped, even though the rain has, because of the situation with the rivers. Now there's a big pile of cleanup to come, and more lost hours and days from my edits.

So, I'll be late turning these in to my publisher. Which in turn throws off my publisher's schedule, since mine is by no means the only book they're publishing this fall. This means they now have to scramble to work proofreading, layout, conversion, and galley proofing into an already packed schedule. This means there is a very good chance that Crescendo will miss its release date. I want to stress that this has nothing at all to do with Storm Moon Press, who has bent over backward at every point in the process to deliver the best book possible.

I'm trying to do the same, but it's looking like it's time to beg your understanding and patience in the event the book misses its scheduled release by a couple or few weeks. A lot hinges on how capable I am of making up for lost time in an already very full schedule, and of how much lost time I'll actually need to make up for--I won't really know the extent of the flood damage (or the consequent cleanup, which is already monstrous) until the waters crest and recede, and I may yet still lose power to said floodwaters at any point (and those who already have lost power have been told not to expect it back for over a week, nor can many evacuate to somewhere that does have power because the town has turned into an island). Just as much hinges on how how quickly the manuscript can be worked into my publisher's production schedule if/when I miss my due date. (I must stress again that this is entirely beyond their control.)

So, the tl;dr version? Weather sucks. Crescendo might be a few weeks late. Please don't kill me :-p

A Good Editor . . .

. . . is worth her weight not just in gold, but also in coffee, chocolate, and kittens. While I'm neck deep in some very, very good (and difficult, sigh) edits on Crescendo that will make the book about a thousand times better than it was in draft form, I wanted to take this Friday to celebrate good editors all around the world, and mine in particular, Tal Valante.

(Actually, I'm pretty sure the cat's hers too.)

So thank you, Tal, for kicking my ass with such gleeful vigor and skill.

Have a lovely weekend, folks. I'll be huddled indoors, nursing my sore ass and the slowly emerging wheat from the chaff of my first draft :-)

Crescendo Deleted Scene

Good morning, folks! Edits on Crescendo continue (have you pre-ordered your copy yet? /shameless plug), and a recent edit had me cutting an entire three-page scene. It was a wise, wise cut (I mean, nothing happens in this scene but a whole lotta navel gazing), but still, seemed a shame to waste it. So, my deleted scene, let me show you it.

Beneath the jump, for first-draft sloppiness and potential spoilers. (I mean, I don't terribly think so? We all already know it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick, after all. But better safe than sorry, I suppose.)

A View of the Cutting-room Floor

Morning, folks! I'm still banging away at Crescendo edits, and a big part of the editing process is to "kill your darlings." I've been doing a lot of that with Crescendo; a first draft, for me at least, is almost always overwritten because so much of it is exploratory. Rather than condemn these passages to the darkness of deletion, I thought I'd save some to share with you. So, here's one that won't ever make it into the final story.

The road sloped gently upward, toward the third wall and the Second Ward beyond it a league or so distant. Beyond that, at the top of the rise, Ayden could just make out the parapets atop the final wall and the spired roof of the castle keep.

Their caravan halted at the heavily-guarded third wall, and Ayden watched with wary interest as a captain spotted the ambassador and rushed his fellows into opening the gate. They were afraid of this man, and if their actions weren’t enough to confirm it, their songs certainly were.

After three weeks on the road with him, Ayden couldn’t blame them.

The air in the Second Ward was sweet with broad gardens and autumn leaves, stately terraced homes of brick and stone set wall to wall but well back from the cobbled road. ‘Twas sweet relief to be among the relative quiet—fewer songs pressing in against his mind-ear, fewer threats against which to hold himself ready. He spotted no idlers on the (clean) streets; the men were about their business, the children surely at their lessons, the women no doubt home where these humans so single-mindedly thought they belonged.

Yet he knew the sense of security here was false. A few powerful men were no less dangerous than an armed mob. 

And ooh, if you haven't seen it yet, the whole first chapter of Crescendo is up now at the publisher's site!

Have a lovely weekend, folks!

Read Crescendo Chapter 1!

Happy Monday, folks! It's a particularly exciting day for me, because today is the first time a long and fully-edited sneak peek of Crescendo is going up on the interwebs. The entire first chapter, in fact. Almost 3500 words. I'm so excited I can't even wait the 23 minutes until it's officially Monday. Ah well, it's Monday in Europe, right? :D

You can find the first chapter at my publisher's book page for Crescendo. Wait--don't go quite yet! Let me tell you about a second exciting thing first: Crescendo pre-orders start today, and there is ten kinds of awesome going down with that. The ten kinds of awesome, let me show u them:

1. For one thing, everyone who pre-orders gets 20% off--you pay $7.99 instead of $9.99 for the ebook, $11.99 instead of $14.99 for the paperback (plus free domestic shipping!), and $14.39 instead of $17.99 for the print + ebook bundle (plus free domestic shipping). I'm not sure how long that special will last, so if you've been waiting for Crescendo, definitely take advantage of it while it's still there.

2. Awesome Point #2 is that folks who pre-order get to download their book a full two days before the "street date"--October 5 instead of October 7.

3. Awesome Point #3 is raffle prizes! Each copy you pre-order gets you entered into a drawing for--get this--a free first-gen Nook pre-loaded with my entire back catalog! A second lucky winner will get signed copies of both Counterpoint and Crescendo, and a third lucky winner will get an autographed print of the gorgeous Crescendo cover art.

Okay, so it turns out there are only three kinds of awesome, but I think they're awesome enough to count for 3.33 points of awesome each, no?

Anyway, off I go, dancing giddily away to wrap up edits. I hope you'll go off to Storm Moon Press and read the first chapter of Crescendo. And I hope it's everything you've all been waiting for :D

. . . Oh, who are we kidding. We both knew I couldn't get through a whole blog post without a picture of Michael Fassbender. So, my present to you. Look, it even unwraps itself!

(Now go! Read Crescendo!)

Song of the Fallen Fanfiction Contest!

My amazing publisher is outdoing their amazing selves with a very cool contest in celebration of the upcoming Crescendo release: they are holding a Song of the Fallen fanfiction contest, and the first prize is a 50-page manuscript critique!

I'm a huge fan of fanfiction. It's where I got my start in gay romance (Mulder/Krycek first, then Sheppard/McKay, and now Erik/Charles), and I'm absolutely tickled at the prospect of people coming to play in my Song of the Fallen sandbox. So, if the thought has ever crossed your mind, now's the time. You could write . . .

• A prequel piece exploring Ayden's or Rik's life before they met. Maybe Rik as a child, or Ayden as a newly minted soldier. Maybe the day Ella was born, or the day Rik's father died, or Rik's first day at the academy at High Court (because, oh man, we all know boys' boarding schools are basically pornos waiting to happen ;-p).
  
  
• A sequel piece speculating about what happens after the events of Counterpoint.
  
  
• A piece exploring a missing scene in Counterpoint. Maybe one of those sex scenes that fades to black, or what really goes on between Ayden and Afi in that red cedar at the beginning of the story, or Ella's first meeting with Kona, or... well, you get the point.
  
  
• A POV shift of an already-written scene. Ever think about how Rik's and Ayden's many arguments looked to Lord Lini? Or what Rik's groom was thinking when they were making love in the next room? Or maybe what it was like for Corporal Ekkja to see elven magic in action for the first time as Ayden fights in the Surge? Or what Rik felt and saw and thought while he was playing violin for Ayden that first time?

Anyway, that's just a few ideas. I'm sure you all can think of many more. Stories need not be erotic, of course, but hey, I'd never turn away smut ;D Feel free to get as dark or indulgent (did someone say hurt/comfort? :D) or even (*gasp*) as fluffy as you want. 

There are three prizes up for grabs: a reader favorite, a publisher favorite (that includes me and my editors), and a door prize. The publisher favorite wins a 50-page critique of an original manuscript--and, of course, the possibility of getting said manuscript published at Storm Moon Press. Don't have an original manuscript? Don't worry; the SMP editors will happily offer constructive feedback on your fanfic offering, plus you'll win an autographed copy of Crescendo and a $20 gift certificate.

There are lots of other neat prizes up for grabs too. And my undying love, of course. Because let's face it--nothing's quite so humbling and flattering and just plain awesome as sitting back and relaxing while other people take your characters out to play.

All the rules are here, at the SMP forum. You do need to register for the forum to participate in the contest, but if you want to post your story anonymously, simply register under a pseudonym.

Want to discuss? Share your enthusiasm? Or maybe share a plot bunny that needs a good home? Just leave a comment below :-) And please--spread the word! Tweet it, Facebook it, blog it, mention it on Goodreads. Then come back here and tell me where you posted it, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a big fat box of awesome Song of the Fallen swag. If lots and lots of people spread the word, said box may even contain an autographed copy of Counterpoint.  

Mid-week Hotties :D

Crescendo edits are due in about three weeks, and between that and the Seekrit Project (more on that soon!) I'm doing with Aleks Voinov and another lovely M/M writer, I'm a bit crunched for time. So of course that means picspam instead of a real blog post :D

I'm still on a total XMFC kick, so I bring you James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender being drop dead sexy, plus some fun animated gifs, beneath the jump.

"The End" FTMFW. And Free Stuff. Horray!

I'm thrilled to announce that at roughly 4 o'clock this morning, I typed the final words on the first draft of Crescendo. No, they were not "The end." But they could have been, as Crescendo marks the end of the 215,000-word journey Ayden and Freyrik started in Counterpoint and just finished on my laptop last night.

Now there will be edits, of course. Lots and lots of edits. But for the next day or two, I'm giving myself a break. I've been laboring hard under deadline for months now, and I'm looking forward to doing nothing for the next couple days but sleeping and reading Charles/Erik X-Men slashfic :D

And celebrating, of course. But what's a party without gifts? So I've got one for you folks. Here it is. (Click to embiggen.)

You're looking at one shiny canvas Crescendo tote bag; a lined, magnetic-backed Crescendo note pad, some Crescendo sticky notes, and two large Crescendo 2012 calendar magnets (one with full front-and-back artwork, and one with fonting).

Next Friday, I will happily ship this to one lucky winner anywhere in the world. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment (with your email, please!) telling me which character in the Song of the Fallen series is your favorite and why. Are you an Ayden gal like me? A Rik gal like my Counterpoint editor? Or maybe you loved the ever-staid Alfred Lord Lini, or the Disney princess Ella, or even the White Witch Lady Kona. Whoever it was, whatever the reason, leave it in the comments and I'll draw one winner at random from among all entries that follow this simple rule.

If the competition is fierce or your answer is particularly inspired, I'll throw in some other goodies as well, both from some of my other titles and from Kari Gregg and Aleks Voinov. (Yes, the three of us are all so internet!married to each other that we give out each other's swag.)

Oh, and one more thing before I go. My ridiculously brilliant Counterpoint editor has started up a fun new writing prompt blog called Creative Writing Prompts to help feed and inspire the muse in us all. It's brand new, but some creative prompts are up already, so go check it out!

Crescendo Sneak Peek #5: Jewish Mothers Are Everywhere ;-)

I'm coming down to the home stretch on Crescendo (at Goodreads here). This time next week, I hope to be able to report to you all that I'm done with it. In the meanwhile, I'm very focused on writing and not so much on blogging, so I thought I'd share another short excerpt with you. As always, beware spoilers. And Jewish mothers, whom of course I love dearly (Hi, mom!), even if the Big Bad Elven Soldier thinks maybe his is worrying a little too much :-D

Six-hundred hot-off-the-keyboard words, beneath the jump.

Crescendo Cover Art and Super-sales!

Happy Memorial Day, folks! I've got such exciting things to share with you today that I'm caving in and putting Monday's post up several hours early.

First, it wouldn't be Memorial Day without a sale, and All Romance Ebooks is holding a crazy one. They're offering a 50% rebate (in store credit) on all purchases made on their site this weekend. Yes--every single book. And unlike the 50% off sales at Fictionwise, publishers and authors will still receive their full royalties on the purchases you make, so it's sweet for us as well as for you. Looking for some shopping ideas? You could purchase Counterpoint and use your rebate to get Anchored for just $0.95 ;-)

To help you take extra advantage of the sale there this weekend, I've put Sublime on sale for $1.97, which is already 36% off. After the rebate, it'll cost you just $.99! That's a two-thirds discount off the regular cover price.

Speaking of covers, let me show you the one for Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen. I am so excited about this gorgeous work of art I could squeal. Er, have squealed. May yet be squealing for some time ;-D

You can click to embiggen that, but if you really want to enjoy Nathie's artistic talents in full size, then click to embiggen this full-spread one instead:

Sexy, huh? I don't know about you, but I can't wait until October 7, when I get to hold this shiny new paperback in my hands :-D

Crescendo Sneak Peek #4

Good morning, folks! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent mostly in the world of Crescendo, and I'm happy to report that for the first time, I can look into the not-too-distant future and see the end of this story. If I had to guess, I'd say I've got ten to fifteen thousand words left to write. I may actually get it done by the end of the month :-D

Since I'm still very much in head-down / ass-in-chair mode trying to finish this novel, I don't have too much spare time, so I thought I'd share with you all a short excerpt from a bit of Crescendo I wrote today. That's beneath the jump. But first, one quick bit of news:

I'm all giddy about having finally figured out how to send a newsletter! So, my first-ever newsletter went out on Friday night. If you'd like to get in on the fun, you can read it here (the link is at the bottom of the page), and subscribe to future ones if you'd like. There was a big fat exclusive excerpt from Break and Enter in there, and I gave away an autographed copy of Counterpoint to one lucky subscriber. I'll have an exclusive excerpt and a giveaway in the next newsletter too, so don't miss your chance to win!

And now today's Crescendo excerpt, beneath the jump. Also, a random hottie (SFW) for the heck of it. Because you can never have too many random hotties.

Crescendo Sneak Peek #3

My scheduled guest couldn't make it today, so I thought I'd share a bit of my WIP with you all. It's hitting the 70,000-word mark today and will hopefully be wrapped up nice and tidy by the end of the month (or my editor will make me scrub toilets, yikes!). I've basically been eating, sleeping. and breathing Crescendo these last several weeks, and I'm very excited about it lately. I hope you will be too :-)

Before I get to the excerpt, just a few quick bits of administrava:

• It's not too late to enter the drawing for a free print copy of Sublime. Just pop on over to my last blog entry and leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject of pricing, which I discussed in the entry. I'll draw a winner on Friday. If you're having trouble leaving a comment (some people have mentioned this), just drop me an email or contact me via my website comment form instead.
  
  
• Storm Moon Press has added one more awesome incentive to pre-order Where He Belongs: you'll get to download the book a full 48 hours before the official release date! Of course you'll still be entered in the drawing for all the cool prizes too, so go, order! It's only $1.99 :-)
  
  
• Counterpoint is at last for sale as a Barnes and Noble Nook book, horray!
  
  
• The Anchored trade paperback is currently on sale at Amazon for $12.75. I don't know how long that sale will last--the last one disappeared in less than a day--so if you're interested and have been waiting for the price to drop, now's the time.

And now what you came for, beneath the jump.

COVER ART!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled no-blog day to share . . . *wipes drool off keyboard* . . . this.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Daniel Halstrom, star of Anchored: Belonging and the upcoming Where He Belongs, a short collection of vignettes releasing July 1 with Storm Moon Press. Click to embiggen; I cannot recommend that highly enough.

This is the cover of Where He Belongs, so the title and my name will be down in the lower left corner soon. Fortunately, my awesome awesome publisher over at Storm Moon gave me permission to post this now before the lettered version is complete :-D I'd have done it a few hours ago, actually, but I Couldn't. Stop. Staring. At. Daniel. Ah well--occupational hazard, I suppose.

If you're feeling like you recognize the style, that's because this was done by the amazing Nathie, the same artist who painted the cover for Counterpoint: Book I of Song of the Fallen, and who will be painting the cover for Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen as well. I feel like the Luckiest Author in the Whole Universe right now.

Oh, and speaking of exciting news? Anchored finally released in print yesterday! :D :D :D You can find it at Amazon (hmm, temporarily sold out at time of posting) or Barnes & Noble (in stock). Sorry about the cover price--I have no control over that--but hopefully if you've been eagerly awaiting the paperback, you'll find it worth the cost. To make it a little less painful for you, if you order one, email me your receipt (metarachel at gmail dot com) and I'll send you some cool Anchored swag.

That's all for now, folks. If I can cease my endless bouncing off the walls, floor, and ceiling, I'll be back tomorrow with the author and lovely lady Sarah Ballance, who'll be discussing Run to You, also of ZOMGHAWT cover fame :D

Crescendo Has a Release Date . . . And a New Home!

It's official, folks, an I'm very excited to be able to say that the Counterpoint sequel, Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen, will release October 7 with Storm Moon Press.

Why not with Guiltless Pleasure, you ask? Unfortunately, GPP's owner is facing some difficult times right now, and the press has had to take a backseat to more important issues. I loved everything about my experience there and am deeply saddened by what's happened. I hope they'll re-open GPP's doors in the not-too-distant future and that I can rejoin them again when the time comes. (You can still read the first five chapters of Counterpoint on their website and purchase Counterpoint through them; they're simply closed to new submissions now.)

That being said, Storm Moon Press has rolled out the red carpet for me, and I'm most impressed by everything I've seen and heard there. They are professional, completely on the ball, and run by some of the nicest and most knowledgeable people you'll ever meet. They offer a beautiful package--they even use the same cover artist GPP used!--some of the best editing in the genre, some of the best royalty rates anywhere, and fair pricing for an upscale/boutique reader experience. They'll also be offering Crescendo for pre-order with some awesome raffle prizes (did someone say a Nook???), so be sure to keep your eyes peeled as release day approaches.

Until then, Happy Monday, my lovelies, and thank you for sharing my joy with me.