99cents for RaShelle Workman's trilogy EXILED!

First of all, if you haven't met four of our new bloggers at Operation Awesome, head on over there and say hi to Angelica, Becky, Max, and Abby!


Now I have something else awesome to share:

RaShelle Workman's EXILED trilogy is available for 99cents on amazon kindle!




You're welcome. And if you ever see a deal like this, let me know, too. I'm all about the ebooks right now as it makes it easier for me to squeeze reading in while nursing or lying in bed at night without waking people with paper sounds. :)

Tomorrow at Operation Awesome, we'll run the last half of our MYSTERY BLOGGER critique contest! So head over there Wednesday, Jan. 30th, to guess which fun facts are lies and enter for a chance to win a critique. 

Free Critiques for Good Lie-Detectors

Squee! I can't even describe how excited I am about this! Operation Awesome is getting 8 new bloggers. What does that mean for you? FREE CRITIQUES! Call it hazing, or a welcoming ritual, but our newbies have agreed to critique for a lucky winner who answers correctly: which one is the lie?

MYSTERY BLOGGER #1-4

THREE TRUTHS AND A LIE CONTEST

• Don't forget to enter Michelle McLean's book release giveaways (5 days of them with incrementally awesome-r prizes. :)
• Amparo talked this morning about having a faux Braveheart moment. Find out what she means here.
• Month9Books' A Shimmer of Angels SHOW US YOUR WINGS CONTEST is ongoing! A Shimmer of Angels is released TOMORROW!

Even though I'm not eligible for the contest (since I just took a job with them!) I participated anyway. The prospect of creating Jude Law with angel wings was just too good to pass up: 

• Offer your own critiques of excerpts at Miss Snark's First Victim

Sometimes Mondays ROCK!

Hugo Awards Season: How to Vote

One of my favorite authors, Max Gladstone, has written a post all about the Hugo awards. 

I suggest you go read it.

Go ahead. 

I'll wait.

Didn't do it? Well, you can lead a horse to water...

No, I'm not insulting you. Never mind. Here's how you become eligible to vote:

1. Register for World Con before Jan 31 2012, by filling out this form.  Click “Submit.”  This will take you to a page where you can select the kind of membership you want to buy.  If you don’t plan to go to World Con this year in person, you want the “Supporting Membership ($60),” which is the last option on the next page.   Fill out the form, and click “Buy Now,” which will take you to a PayPal payment processing page.
2. Receive a Hugo Voter PIN.  World Con will send this number to you.
3. When you have received your PIN, use this electronic form to nominate works for the Hugo, and there you go!  You’ll receive more instructions from the award administrators from that point on.

Who would you vote for if you could?

I'd definitely vote Max Gladstone's THREE PARTS DEAD for Best Novel. I'm reading it right now and loving every page -- and I'm not the only one:

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone.  I talked a lot about this novel at cons last year, pretty much on any panel where someone asked how important it is to stick to strict genre categories, because this proves that good story trumps any kind of marketing category.  Write a good book, the publisher will find a way to sell it.  This one got marketed as urban fantasy, with the hot chick with a weapon on the cover.  But it’s also a post-apocalyptic fantasy with gods that’s also a legal thriller.  It’s pretty much unlike anything you’ve read. -Carrie Vaughn

and

Best Novel (nominations): 

The Killing Moon/The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge  

-from the Book Smugglers

Haven't read THREE PARTS DEAD yet?

THE BLURB:

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. 

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. 

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival. 

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.  

-Goodreads 

ENJOY! Let me know if you vote and which books you elevated in the world's estimation!

Blog Chain: Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Amparo asks:

It's a new year, and some writers have taken it upon themselves to switch things up. *points at self* It might be the genres you write in or your revision process. It might be your main character's voice. What's one thing you've chosen to change in your writing this new year? Why do you wish to change it? If there's nothing you're going to change, why do you think it should remain as is?

This year I'm changing my one-WIP-at-a-time rule. Inspired by the productivity of some of my critique partners (you know who you are), I realized the only thing holding me back is me. Not this one project. Not anybody I'm waiting to have read my stuff. Just. me. 

I'm excited to be working on two projects seriously, a third project first-draft-ly -- and I'll also be starting a new adventure as an editorial assistant for Month9Books. 

The editorial staff have been excellent, and in case you haven't noticed, they have a beautiful variety of books coming out in MG/YA speculative fiction (which happens to be my very favorite kind). 

Enter their contest for A Shimmer of Angels swag going on now.

Because of the very basic work I'll be doing with Month9, I'm going to be learning a lot about the pieces and parts of a novel -- and that can only be good for my personal growth as a writer. Not to mention all the amazing books I get to read pre-publication. #jobperks

My study of style has been ongoing for several years now, but my study of structure has only just begun in earnest this year. I've talked a good game about outlining, but I'd always believed in a sort of blind outlining where you just feel things out. I rejected formulaic outlining as being somehow... well, 'formulaic.' That word has all kinds of negative connotations for writers. As it turns out, having a formula only gives you walls to push against, rules to break. And that's good. 

That's the biggest change I have made so far this year, and I'm going to keep moving in that direction because the results already have been delightful good fun. 

Voice-wise, I'm still trying to get rid of my rhetorical questions disease. (It's particularly bad in first person POV.) And I've got to stop beginning every other sentence with a conjunction. Seriously, Katrina, it's epidemic. 

And now I'm talking to myself. (Shoot, did it again with the conjunction.)

What will you change about your writing this year to improve your craft? Or your marketing? Or your... quit it with the conjunctions again, Katrina. 

Blast! 

And goodnight.

Please check out Christine Fonseca's post yesterday, and tomorrow (today, actually, as it's midnight) check out Lisa Amowitz's blog for her biggest change of the year.

The Power of Positive Customer Reviews

I buy a lot of e-books these days, as well as buying paper books online at retailers like amazon and thebookdepository. Do you know what my decision process looks like?

Ooh, shiny cover art.

That blurb is a little meandering, not so punchy. I bet the writing is that way, too.

support this artist

Better check out the reviews.

Holy cow, this person read for three straight days and is still thinking about the book a week later! Maybe I should read it! I definitely should. I WANT!!!

And that's the power of positive customer reviews. Do you share your thoughts on books in the various retail spots? Here are some big ones to consider, especially if you want to support your favorite authors:

Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
Amazon

If you have a favorite book and review-sharing site to add, please give it a shout-out in the comments. By sharing our experiences with books, good and bad, we can help other readers sift through the mountains of books released every day to find the real gems.

Plus, you get to support an artist. And that's reason enough.

(I also contribute to an incredible review blog called Afterglow Book Reviews.)

To Trust a Thief Cover Reveal and Release!

To Trust a Thief by Michelle McLean was released today!

I know, it's almost hard to keep track of all the awesome! But I'm very excited about Michelle's release, and not just because she's an Operation Awesome blogger. I've read this book and it is chill-inducing. The suspense and romantic tension are freaking delicious. 

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have. Here's the sexy cover:

Add it on goodreads

And the sexy/suspenseful blurb:

Minuette Sinclair's parents are in trouble and her fake fiancé is too. A legendary lost necklace might be their salvation, and Min is determined to find it and use it to buy her family and fiancé out of their misfortunes.

Master thief Bryant Westley is also looking for the fabled necklace. He knows Min’s got information he can use so he poses as her dance instructor and tries to seduce it from her. What he doesn’t count on are his feelings for her. He offers to partner up in the search – even though she is a distraction he can’t afford. 

Things become more complicated when Min realizes that her convenient engagement means more to her fake fiancé than her and that she’s fallen in love with Bryant. Bryant realizes that he can’t double cross the young lady he’s come to love. Can they find the necklace together and admit their love before it’s too late?

For release week, Michelle is hosting a real live treasure hunt, beginning on her blog today.

You could win this gorgeous Victorian bookmark: 

More prizes to follow in the coming week.

Want to know what treasures you will be hunting for?

Day 1 = a beautiful Victorian bookmark
Day 2 = a $25 gift card
Day 3 = a Shakespeare Insults clock (totally cute and hilarious)
Day 4 = a Minuette locket (a replica of the one in the book)
Day 5 = A NOOK COLOR!!!

Here are the Treasure Hunt blog stops:
Day 1 - Monday Jan 21st – Michelle's blog
Day 2 - Tuesday, January 22 -- Romance Junkies
Day 3 - Wednesday, January 23 -- Cocktails and Books
Day 4 - Thursday, January 24 -- Romance Book Junkies
Day 5 - Friday, January 25 -- Romance Reviews Today

So head on over to her blog and start hunting for treasure!




Buy it at Barnes and Noble 

Jessica Bell's THE BOOK is a book!

Jessica Bell's THE BOOK is now available!

Goodreads

This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie. 

Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie’s mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie’s father, doesn’t live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie’s stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won’t allow it. 

To Bonnie, The Book is sadness. To Penny, The Book is liberation. To John, The Book is forgiveness. To Ted, The Book is envy. 

But The Book in this book isn’t what it seems at all.

I am looking forward to this read. It's pretty much guaranteed to be heartbreaking. I read and loved STRING BRIDGE by the same author. You can read my review of that here. Jessica Bell is a poet, a musician, and a novelist. Her work is always moving and emotional. Since I haven't yet read this one and can't talk about it specifically, I'll leave you with an amazon review:

I couldn't stop reading it! 

"The book has demons and has to go to the devil." 

Bonnie is determined to bury the book. Penny ensures her young daughter that it's a token of love and affection and that one day she will understand. However, Bonnie is convinced it does nothing but inflict pain on the people she loves. She wonders how grownups can be so stupid and not see what she sees. Then again, she know she's just a child and does not understand most things about life. Grownups "smile when they're sad and they cry when they're happy. It's silly." 

The road to Hell is paved with the best of intentions. A book that was created out of love develops into a representation of agony. Her parents write in it. Bonnie tells you how it interferes with her everyday life. 

Jessica Bell has poetically scripted a love story so genuine and so pure, it could only be told in the innocent perspective of a five-year-old girl. She elegantly builds up an anticipating climax so horrific and yet, so authentic, it'll captivate you. I guarantee after reading THE BOOK, the story will linger in your mind long after you've finished.

Find Jessica online:

email: jessica.carmen.bell@gmail.com
website: http://www.jessicabellauthor.com/

retreat & workshop site: http://hwrw.blogspot.com/

blog: http://thealliterativeallomorph.blogspot.com/

Vine Leaves Journal: http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.jessica.bell

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MsBessieBell

Her other books: