Tag: coffee

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introducing Zero, and a cover reveal

I meant to introduce you all to Zero last week, but I completely spaced it. I’ll blame it on the combination of pain and pain meds. So today, I want to do that, but yesterday my publisher emailed me with the cover for In Gathering Shade, and as an added bonus, he included the re-designed cover for Through Shade and Shadow.

Through Shade and ShadowIt’s gorgeous, don’t you think?  I’m in love with it!

Okay, let’s talk about Zero. I started writing Zero’s character originally thinking she was the start of something new.  Then I discovered that she was a part of Shades and Shadows.

We first meet her as a prisoner of sorts, the subject of some mysterious experimentation.  Zero is sixteen, the daughter of a Chinese Sage who was seduced and eventually controlled by an American Shadow with questionable ambitions.

Zero is something of an escape artist, an adept thief, and particularly good with glamors. She doesn’t trust easily, so when she throws in with Raven and Evan she’s also got one foot out the door, and her eye on all the exits.

Even she doesn’t fully know what the experiments did to her, but she knows she doesn’t want to wait to find out.  She has seen first hand what the man behind her captivity could do to the minds of others and she’s scared that he might have done the same to her.

Zero is both Sage and Shadow, and no one knows the full extent of what she can do.  In many ways, Zero is a broken glass held together with duct tape.

I know, I know…what you really want is to see the cover for In Gathering Shade, right?

With no further ado…This cover is beautiful!  I can’t stop staring at the two of them together!

in-gathering-shade

 

I should have release dates and such for you soon!  Now though, I need to get more coffee and get my work day started.

I’d love to hear what you think.  Drop me a note in the comments!

 

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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.

4795598576_4edc53f518_o

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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be the future

I love my weekend mornings.  They start with coffee and words.  It’s my time to write, or in some cases, edit.  The first few hours of the day are peaceful and quiet and I get to step out of the world I live in to inhabit some place filled with magic…well, mayhem as well.  What good is a story that doesn’t shake things up a bit?

Anyway, I’m enjoying that part of my Sunday morning, working on the closing chapters of In Shades of Sage, the second book in the Shades and Shadows series.  It feels good to be writing again.  I’ve been stuck on the same chapter for weeks. Yesterday I worked out where it was going wrong and re-worked it, so I get to write fresh material today.

But, my time is short today because in a few hours I need to leave to head out to Stockton, CA to spend time with family.  Not only is it Memorial Day weekend, but my niece is graduating from High School on Tuesday.

On the one hand, it doesn’t seem possible that she’s even old enough (forget that she turned 18 in January), on the other it’s kind of amazing to see the person she turned out to be.  I vaguely remember my own high school graduation. For the most part, I was just glad to be done with it.

I was a very different person then, and I really didn’t see much future for myself, if I’m honest.  I was surviving.  For Vae, I’m hoping she sees a brighter future for herself.  I hope she has dreams and ambitions beyond just surviving high school.  I hope to see her shine as she moves into the life she creates for herself.

No matter what that future is, no matter what roadblocks get in the way.  Don’t let anyone else tell you what your future is meant to be.  Make it your own way.  Be the future you want to see.

I’ll be over here with my pompoms cheering you on.

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the day job

Like many independent authors, I can not give up my day job because it is the only thing keeping a roof over my head and the internet paid for.  Which isn’t to say that sales have been bad.  But if I was relying on book sales to keep me ensconced in comfy pajama pants and cat videos on demand, I’d be sleeping in a cardboard box.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t even have gotten a book published (believe me, I tried), so every sale is something special.   And I LOVE the shifting dynamics of the publishing world.  There are so many outlets for books that might never have come to be, and so many new ways of reading content.  It’s truly delightful.

However, that does mean a market saturation, which makes each book sale something you have to work for.  And marketing a book is more work than anyone can guess, unless you’ve done it.

So, it’s a good thing I like what I do for a living.  Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather spend my days writing, but I make do with the knowledge that I get to hone my editing skills every day.  I’m also grateful that I work in tech, where I can wear Star Wars and Supernatural t-shirts every day and dye my hair green and sport a variety of tattoos…and no one even looks at me sideways.

Speaking of the day job, the office is waking up around me so I guess I should go pour that second cup of coffee and get to it.  Happy Monday, Readers!

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out from under

This has not been a good week.  I get migraines, and this week I had one doozy of a migraine. It came on during the day at work Tuesday, and I left work early.  Stayed home on Wednesday, tried to work on Thursday, but only got to about 1pm before I called it quits and came home.

Yesterday was the first day I had some relief.  I worked from home because I was afraid the sunlight would set it off again.  Today I am finally out from under it.

That means that all my grand plans for getting stuff done during the week didn’t happen and that leaves me with a fair amount of things to do this weekend, from Pride prep to writing and housework.

I suppose I should get busy doing some of that.  But before I go, let me remind you that I will be holding down a table at the Bay Area Book Festival on Sunday, June 4!  If you’re in the SF Bay area, you should come down and say hello!

Hope all of you have a fantastic weekend.  I’ll pop in with something for Mother’s day tomorrow.

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happy Wednesday

Wednesdays are hard, aren’t they?  It’s all hands on deck to push this week up over that hump and we’re already tired from Monday and Tuesday, so it feels like twice as much work.

Today, in San Francisco, the air is wet.  It isn’t exactly raining, but the fog lies low and it feels like walking through a raincloud.  That doesn’t help with the whole feeling like getting the work done.  It feels like the kind of day I’d like a fire in a nice fireplace, a cuddly kitty, a cup of tea and a good book to read.

But, that won’t pay the bills.  So, here I am in the office, getting a head start on the day.  I’m the first one here most of the time, which means I spend most of the first hour alone.  It’s great for catching up on emails, and finishing up the loose ends from the day before.

As luck would have it, this particular Wednesday is your last chance to jump in on the two giveaways I’m hosting over on Goodreads.  I’m offering up two signed copies of both of my books.  To enter, just pop on over here or over here (or do both).

I’m going to go refill my coffee cup and see about a re-write on some technical documentation before the office gets busy.  Hope your Wednesday is a day filled with kindness and the good coffee.

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on the need for coffee

I’m a big coffee drinker.  I like mine dark and fairly strong.  And yes, I freely admit my caffeine addiction.  A day without coffee is a day without sunshine.

As I have many friends who are also authors, it is fairly routine for us to get into conversations where we imagine ourselves in the worlds of our characters, or in the worlds of favorite books.

Recently we started talking about dystopian futures and post-apoc worlds.  It got us talking about living without the common modern conveniences we take for granted. We talked about our survival skills, how we would cook without stoves and ovens and microwaves, how we would hunt or fish, etc.

There was one thing we all agreed on, however.  That one thing was coffee.  We could survive any apocalypse, as long as there was coffee and a way to make it. How about you?  Coffee-fiend? Or is there something else you can’t do without?