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free on kindle

I almost forgot to let you know that Through Shade and Shadow is currently free for kindle, now (well, starting yesterday) through September 3rd!

through-shade-and-shadow-reders-favYou read that right!  FREE!

Just in time to be ready for In Gathering Shade, get Through Shade and Shadow for your kindle, and if you’re up for it, write a review.

Remember that any NEW reviews will be entered for a chance to win a copy of In Gathering Shade!

 

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And while you’re at it, you should pick up a copy of Once Upon a Broken Dream too!  Just $.99 for your Kindle!

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ready to share some broken dreams?

Today is the day, everyone!  The very first, multi-author anthology for Creativia publishing is LIVE.

Dragons, magic, fairies, angels, vampires, knights, a gollum, a vengeful child’s toy, a depressed cashier, a bridge made of stars, and a donkey… What do they all have in common? An appearance in this anthology.

This collection of short stories is as diverse as the Creativia authors who wrote them. Travel to Victorian London, an otherworldly slave market, a faraway planet, a quaint English town and other wondrous places in the pages of Once Upon a Broken Dream.

I am so very happy that this is finally ready for all of you.  We have a diverse group of stories, and I hope they serve to introduce you to a few new authors along the way.

I plan on asking each of the authors to do a short interview and I will be featuring each one here in the next week or two.

So for $.99 you can get your copy of Once Upon a Broken Dream for your Kindle!

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a taste of Forever

(image via http://streamline.filmstruck.com/)

I will admit that I have had a lifelong fascination/obsession with vampires.  It started young.  I remember watching Salem’s Lot  when I was just a wee eleven years old.    I’m not cognizant of any significant vampire related moments prior to that, but I have very vivid memories of watching it on TV in the apartment where we lived in Hilton, NY.  Of course, some of that is to do with my age, and some with the fact that my younger brother had snuck down the stairs to watch for at least parts of it and was haunted for MONTHS after by the scene in the image above.

So, it would be safe to say the Stephen King introduced me to vampires.  He was by no means the last to walk me into the dark, of course.  I read the book the movie was based on that same year, and after that I dug into other books and movies and TV shows, too many to count and name, for certain.

By the time I was 20 I had read Dracula enough times to know entire passages by heart.  I wasn’t content to stop there either, I dug into vampire lore, exploring the different ways they were presented in different cultures…the similarities, the differences.  I was fascinated by the concept of immortality,  drawn in by not only the idea of being witness to history, but the mundanity of living a daily existence where every night bleeds into the next.

I was, as a pubescent teenager is like to, pulled to the erotic notion of the biting, of taking life from the very essence that keeps us all alive, the intimate nature of that exchange, while also at the same time, being a practical child, by the idea that not every meal could be an erotic buffet of hot neck biting and licking that led to what my teenage hormones could only imagine.  I found myself thinking about other ways a vampire might get what she needed, without the entanglement of the humanity that comes with drinking from a human chalice.

By the time I was sixteen, I had a pretty good idea what my vampires would be like, if I were to write about vampires…and from that idea, Amara was born.

It is safe to say that Amara comes from those first vampires I experienced, and is influenced by those that came after.

And you can experience Amara and all her nuance right now for 99 cents!  Forever is available right now for Kindle at the low price of 99 cents. Grab your copy today…and leave a review if you would!  Reviews make writers happy!

My coffee cup seems to be empty, I best go fill it up.  Happy Wednesday, Readers!

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forever and a week (at $.99)

Here we are again, another Monday, another day in the office.  We’re into the middle of July already, which seems ludicrous, really.  Before you know it, the holiday season will be upon us!

I have something to celebrate, however, and we don’t have to wait for Christmas!  My first book with Creativia Publishing is on promo this week, today through the 16th and you can get a Kindle copy for only $.99!  Yes! That’s right, just ninety-nine cents for Forever!

I spent a bunch of time over the weekend working on a short story anthology that I hope to have ready for the publisher by next Monday, and part of that was working on a story of my own that I hope to include.  It’s a short piece in the world of a novel I hope to write next year, when I’ve finished with Shades and Shadows.  It’s going to be a sci-fi novel and I’m excited to get into it, even if only in a small way.

I suppose I should go pour that cup of coffee and get my day started.  So much to do and all that.  Have a great Monday, Readers!

 

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and just like that, it’s June

I’m not really sure where January, February, March, April and May have all gotten themselves off to, but I hope they’re having fun.  It seems like just a day or two ago I was struggling to remember to write 2017 on things instead of 2016 (or the inexplicable occasions where I wrote 1996….what?), and here we are on the first of June.

We sent May out with a bang though.  My niece graduated high school on Tuesday.  She is the youngest of my brother’s kids, and I couldn’t be more proud of the woman she is becoming.  The school she graduated from is one of the top 1% of schools in the country and her classmates are all amazing students, most of whom will be attending four year universities and colleges in the fall.

I got back from all of that frivolity last night, and when I woke up this morning it was June.  Already, my calendar is jam packed for the month.

babf_logoStarting this weekend when I will be at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, California signing (and selling) books.  I will have copies of my two novels, Forever and Through Shade and Shadow as well as my small collection of poetry.  Sale pricing is $12 each for the novels and $2.50 for the poetry collection.

I can take cash, credit cards and paypal.  It should be a fun day for the whole family.  With all of the vendors and authors, there should be something for everyone!

San Francisco Pride is at the end of the month, for a completely different festival to bookend the month.  Pride likewise has something for just about everyone.  If you come out to one or both days of Pride remember to wear sunscreen, dress in layers, wear comfortable shoes, and please consider dropping a dollar (or more) into one of those pink buckets.  Every penny goes to support the organization that creates the festival and/or the organizations that take care of our community.

Somewhere between those bookends, I will be taking a couple of days to head out to Yosemite with my mother, to enjoy some nature and some truly breathtaking views, like this one, which I took on my last trip to Yosemite in 2010.

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But for now, I should go pour my second cup of coffee and get to working the day job.  Hope you all have a pleasant day!

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a festival of books

I have a confession to make.  I have never been to a book festival or convention or other celebration of books.  Not as a reader, certainly not as a writer.  Some of the reasons for this are fundamental issues of who I am, namely the agoraphobic part of who I am.  Large crowds, even mediocre crowds in small spaces make me sweat, palpitate, hyperventilate and ultimately need to leave quickly unless I do an awful lot of prep work first.

So, when I show up on Sunday, June 4th at Civic Center Park in Berkeley, California, I will be attending my first event.

babf_logo The Bay Area Book Festival is in it’s third year, and while I’d love to be able to attend some of the talks and such on Saturday, I have other obligations.  But come Sunday morning, I will load up my cart with books and a table cloth (reminder to self, get a tablecloth), my tablet and credit cart doohicky plus a bunch of water and snacks for the day, and I will BART myself into Berkeley and find my assigned place in the park for the day.

Of course, I hope to sell enough books to break even on the day, but beyond that, my hope is that I can keep my agoraphobic anxiety down and that I get to meet new folks, talk about my books and other books.  I’d love to meet readers who are passionate about what they read and love.  I’d also love to meet fellow authors who are passionate about what they write and love.

If it isn’t too much to hope for, I’m going to hope that some of my friends and family come out to see me too.  It isn’t every day an author gets to do their first event like this…and if I’m being truthful, maybe having someone watch my table for a bit while I look around would be awesome too.

So, if you’re somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area and fancy some book loving come Sunday, June 4th, you should hope on BART and take yourself to the Berkeley Civic Center station.  The park is just a short walk away.

I won’t be too hard to find.  I’ll be the author with green hair, probably wearing a fedora or other hat, and possibly a Star Wars shirt, depending on my mood.  Come Say HI!

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Beltane blessings and happy Monday

May 1st, it’s one of the “big ones” for most modern Pagans.  Beltane is a celebration of life, the awakening of the earth, the dancing of the maypole, the fervor of frenzied mating that calls out to all creation that now is the time to seed the fields.

Many of my Pagans friends were up and out before the dawn, gathering in fields and on hilltops to sing and dance in the daylight, to greet the rising sun with cheer.  It is the time of the maiden, of flower crowns and a heady innocence that leads into day, and as night falls, brings us to the fires to be baptised and raised up, delivering us into the heat and passion of creation.

For the rest of the world, it’s Monday.  A beginning of a different kind.  Here in San Francisco it feels like we’ve finally turned a corner weather wise.  The nights are still cool, but the days are getting warmer.  I’m celebrating with a change of hair color that seems to suit both the holy day of Beltane and the return of the spring.

green

Yes, I went green this weekend, after spending a ridiculous amount of time getting all of the red out of my hair.  I really like the way it turned out.

Anyway, enough of my prattling at you.  Did you know you can still get Forever  for free (on Kindle)?  Today and tomorrow.  You can’t get much better than Free!  And, while Amara’s story may seem more like Samhain reading than Beltane, who knows when the next time is you can get it for nothing?

So, I’m going to get on with the day job now.  I hope all you Pagans out there have a smashing Beltane, and the rest of you, Happy Monday!

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you want a free book?

Did I say free?  Yes, in fact I did!

February 18-21 Through Shade and Shadow is FREE for Kindle!

Get your copy for free and if you feel so inclined, leave a review when you’ve finished reading it.  I love getting free stuff, don’t you?

How many more times can I say free? Probably lots, but I don’t want to bore you!

Come into my world and meet my characters!

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#readers favorite review

I was very fortunate to receive a FIVE STAR review from Reader’s Favorite this week!

Through Shade and Shadow was reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers’ Favorite.

“A cautionary tale with a supernatural essence, Through Shade and Shadow tells the story of two people who are trying to make a difference, to do good and save people from hatred. So much truth is in this novel. There may be Shades, Shadows, and Shifters, but it’s so realistic that it’s eerie. All it took was a Shade being caught murdering people, and then everyone is afraid of Shades, not taking the time to see that at their core they’re healers.”

Read the full review!

Also, a little birdie told me a secret!  The Kindle version of Through Shade and Shadow will be FREE for four days, starting Saturday, February 18th.

I hope you’re all enjoying the book.  If you’ve read it, I hope you wouldn’t mind leaving a review on the Amazon store (US, UK, CA, AU, whichever) and/or Goodreads or other review friendly place.  If you’re a blogger and you post a review, I’d love to hear from you.  Or if you’re interested in an interview or other blogging fun with me, drop a line.

You can email me at natalie@nataliejcase.com.

Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!

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goodreads giveaway!

This is your reminder that there are only two days (today and tomorrow) left to get your name in over on Goodreads to be entered into a drawing for one of two signed copies of Through Shade and Shadow!

And now through 2/15, signed copies of both Through Shade and Shadow and Forever are on sale for $10 each.  Buy both and I’ll throw in a copy of my poetry book!

Visit my Facebook shop to order!

Hope your Thursday is filled with Love and Laughter and Kindness!