Category: where shadows fall

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book link and other fun stuff

You might have noticed a few changes around here, which can only mean that the new book is finally here!  You can find Where Shadows Fall on Amazon.  Only the Kindle version is available, but the paperback should follow shortly.

As usual, this also means the push to get reviews, as my publisher’s promotion apparatus only functions well with a minimum of 10 reviews on Amazon.  To help facilitate that, I am setting up an Amazon giveaway of 4 Kindle copies.  I should have the link to that later today.  I’ll update this post when I have it.

Eventually, the trilogy should be available as a set for Kindle, and I’ll probably do a giveaway for that too when the time comes.

And, if you’re more of a paperback person, I’ll have links to those as soon as I have them.  I may even do a flash giveaway of paperbacks just in time for Christmas, provided I get them in time.

Now, however, on this rainy Wednesday in San Francisco, the day job has begun and I must switch from creative word making to technical word making.  Hope your Wednesday is filled with awesome and amazing things, Readers!

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so you want to start a revolution…

Through Shade and Shadow is just that, the start of a rebellion, though no one involved knew that at the time.  And, right now, Through Shade and Shadow is available for free for your kindle.

This first book in the Shades and Shadows trilogy introduces Alaric Lambrecht and Mason Jerah, and the world in which they live.  It’s a world that is starting to come apart at the seams.

If you haven’t read it yet, now is your chance to get it before Where Shadows Fall drops.  Let me lure you into an America not so different from our own, one where tribes of paranormal people have blended into the fabric, hiding their talents to prevent their own destruction.

Shades, a name given to them because of their particular weakness to the sun, are primarily healers, though they can kill just as well as heal.  They are feared for their gifts, particularly after one is found to be a serial killer. Of the tribes, Shades are the most feared and have the hardest time hiding due to their issue with sunlight.

Shadows are psychics and mind-readers, among other things.  Their gifts come from their minds and their name comes from the ability to control another person, shadowing them. Of the tribes, Shadows hide the easiest among the human population, their gifts easy to disguise.

Shifters are shapeshifters, people with the ability to shift into something else.  Of the tribes, Shifters have been hunted the most voraciously over the years, resulting in a low number of them still in existence.

Sages are those who use magic and each Sage is attuned to a specific form of magic based on their elemental affinity.  Of the tribes, Sages have had the easiest time adapting to the modern world, hiding among the new age and Pagan populations.

America is falling apart, shredding itself in it’s fear of those it once thought were myth, and Alaric and Mason are directly in the path of the destruction.  War is coming.

Shades and Shadows

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Looking for a signed book for a Christmas present for the reader in your life? I have a limited number of books available, including Forever and Through Shade and Shadow with the old cover.  Hit me up in email at natalie@nataliejcase.com  or in DM on Facebook.

 

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new book coming

We’re in the final stages of getting Where Shadows Fall out into the world.  Just yesterday I got the final version of the cover.  where-shadows-fall

I am very pleased with the way it incorporates bits from the first two covers.

Blurb:

As the world descends into ever darker chaos, Alaric Lambrecht seems set to follow it, seeking vengeance no matter the cost. His path will take him deep into 8th Battalion territory and on a collision course with Raven Ivany and Zero, who are attempting to rescue those taken during the raid on Shady Lake. It seems a small light in the darkness, but it brings Shadows and Shifters, Sages and Shades all together with a common enemy.

The only question is, can the four tribes join together enough to win the war?

I can’t wait to share this story with you, Readers!

 

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where birds fly free

It’s an early Saturday morning, early enough that it’s still dark outside.  I can hear the gutters still draining off the steady rain of the last few days and every now and then, a gust of wind. It’s a nice sound, especially because we have needed the rain so badly.

I’m waiting on cover options from our designer for Where Shadows Fall and working on the next project, but for today, I am taking a break to go watch some birds with my mother and a friend (who incidentally is the woman I modeled the character Victoria around in the Shades and Shadows books).

We have a number of ecological preserves and wildlife sanctuaries or refuges around us, and while I may not know the names of every bird we will see, I’ll enjoy watching them and spending time with two women I adore.  It is a chance for my camera to venture out and take some shots, like the one above, which I took at the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve a couple of weeks ago.

It’s nice to take a break from one creative endeavor for a different creative endeavor.

Right now though, I’m sipping my morning coffee and contemplating breakfast. I hope your Saturday is everything you need it to be, Readers.

And, if you’re shopping for the reader in your life this small business Saturday, consider any one (or more) of my books, found here.

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#amwriting

I’m sitting in my home office on a Saturday morning, enjoying the last bit of the Death Wish Coffee before I get my next shipment later in the month, and writing.  It is maybe my favorite day of the week, especially when the words are working well.

Today is one of those days, when the words are working and the story has changed enough that my re-write of existing words to change from 3rd person to 1st person has become writing fresh words that take the story in a slightly different direction.

My main character, my point of view character is an eleven year old girl when we first meet her.  She got her name when one of my best friends responded to my naming dilemma by telling me to name her Fred.  She was being facetious, but I took the suggestion to heart.  Her full name is Alliafred, but those close to her call her Fred.

The world she lives in is different from anything I’ve published before, and I’ve been really enjoying create a map of that world, though I lack in the drawing skills and naming skills.  I’ve been working on the world’s backstory for years.

In other news, I’m told to expect Where Shadows Fall to be ready to publish before the end of November, and as soon as I can, I will share the cover with all you.  I’m very excited to share this story with you to close out the Shades and Shadows series.

Now, however, it’s back to the coffee and the words.

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weekend tidbits

I woke up this morning to my publishing contract for Where Shadows Fall, which is not a bad way to start a Sunday morning, you know?

Yesterday I woke up to a small cold, and ended up taking the day very easy.  Today I plan on writing for a few hours, then getting the housework tamed a bit.  Seems like there is always housework, doesn’t it?

At the moment, I’m slowly waking up.  I have a cup of coffee and it’s quiet outside my window.  I imagine the kids next door will be shattering that silence before long, but for the moment it is quite nice.

I can’t wait until I can share new cover art with you all!  For now though, I seem to have reached the bottom of my coffee cup, so I’m off to refill it.  Hope your Sunday is filled with fun and imagination, Readers!

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where shadows fall

I received word yesterday that my manuscript for Where Shadows Fall has been accepted by my publisher.  This means it should be ready for release in time for holiday sales.  Where Shadows Fall will serve as the ending of the Shades and Shadows trilogy, though not likely the end of stories in that world.

I have at least two short stories I want to write with these characters, possibly more, so I won’t be leaving it for a long time.

There aren’t really any new characters for me to introduce to you this time around.  The story moves from where In Gathering Shade left off and drives through the gathering darkness without really picking up any new characters.

We do get to see more of Emily and Victoria in this book, and some of the side characters really get ot shine as well.  I can’t wait to see the cover because I know that my publisher always comes through with great covers.

I hope you, dear Readers, are as excited about this as I am!  But for now, I have to go get another cup of Death Wish Coffee and get some work working.

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the fury of women

I’m sure you can feel it.  The anger seething just beneath the surface.  The anger of women who have been ignored, belittled, harassed, abused, assaulted, raped and the status quo has failed them time and time again.

If you can’t feel it, you must be living in a cave.

The swell is coming.

I’ve been told not to be too political on my blog because it will scare readers away.  But if you read my work, you should already know where I stand.  I hope you are voters, Readers.  I hope you will vote next month and in two years and in two years after that.  I hope you will vote in every election, no matter how small.  Make your voices heard.

Let that rage fill you up and burst out in that voting booth.

I tend to fall to poetry when the need to express myself is greatest.  Here’s one I wrote last night/this morning:  Self Destruction.

With that, and my last cup of coffee, I’m off to write and edit for a bit.  New book coming soon!

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coffee in a paper cup

Today began with dropping my favorite coffee mug (well, one of them, in this case the one I keep in the office) on the floor in the office kitchen and smashing it into about five pieces.  Smashing, no?

I shook it off and got some coffee started and set out to dig through my email.  I’ve been down with a stomach bug since Sunday. So, while I worked from home yesterday, I ignored a lot of stuff.

In forty days I leave on vacation.  Two weeks in France and Italy with my good friend from England.  The history and art geeks in me are so excited I can barely function!  I got the city pass I bought for Rome in yesterday’s mail, and I’m just buzzing about it.

Italy has been on my bucket list since before I had a bucket list.

And now that my step-father’s memorial is over, and after this weekend we should have my mother completely moved into her new place, that means I now have time to turn my energy back to writing.  I wrote about a half a chapter this last week, and it felt really good.

I have some major editing to do on Where Shadows Fall before I can get it submitted to my editor, but I also have two other projects on the burners again after a long absence.  With any luck, August can be the month of finishing that trilogy and getting it into the publisher.

For now, I’m reclaiming the day with coffee out of a paper cup, and a new order into Death Wish Coffee for a new favorite coffee mug.

Smashing!

 

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imposter syndrome

Do you know what imposter syndrome is?  I don’t know a single creative who isn’t plagued by it at some point in their career, if not through their whole career. I am no different.

It usually hits about now, when I have submitted a book to an editor and I’m waiting for the return.  There’s this voice in the back of my head that starts whispering that this is it, this is the moment when everyone finds out that I’m a hack, that I can’t write my way out of a paper bag, my plots recycled, my characters flat.

This is it.  This is where it all ends.

Of course, it doesn’t actually end here.  In a week or so I’ll get my edits back with things I need to fix and notes on character or plot, along with notes of cheerleading from my editor and lots of exclamation marks around how much she loved it.

That will placate the voices for a while, until I’m ready to turn it in for publishing.  Then it all comes flooding back and it can be crippling.  This is when that voice accusing me of being an imposter is joined by all of those voices that show me the lack of external validation…”You can’t even get reviews on the first two, what makes you think anyone wants to read your drivel?”

Is it any wonder that creatives are such fragile creatures sometimes?

Lest you think that it’s just in my creative writing I suffer this madness, know that just this month I received a raise in my day job that puts me at a level I’ve never expected to reach, and still, at least twice a week I’m struck with absolute terror that they’re going to realize I’m just posing, that I don’t know what I’m doing (despite the evidence to the contrary) and put me out on the street.

The only cure I know is to just keep going, which is why I’m eight pages into the seventh chapter of my next book.  It feels good to be writing a new story in a new world and a different style.

Take that, voices.