Saturday, April 20, 2013

Sneak Peak Sunday

For Sneak Peak Sunday I'm posting an excerpt from my recently released novel, Affairs of the Dead. I figured I'd posted the beginning of the novel quite a bit already so the excerpt I'm using is from later in the novel where the main character, Selene, and her partner, Micah are investigating the death of a woman. The excerpt also showcases a little the tense relationship Selene and Micah have. Here's a blurb about the novel to get an idea of what it's about: 

Blurb:

Help ghosts, stop a thief, and try not to die…

Necromancer Selene Vanream helps ghosts settle their affairs so they can move on. But when breaking the rules gets her in trouble, she’s bumped down to tracking ghosts trying to avoid the afterlife. Ghosts like Ethan Lance, who claims he was kicked out of his body when someone else jumped in. Which might be plausible—if such a thing were possible. And if Micah, Selene’s partner, didn’t pull her into an investigation of brutal murders that lead directly back to Ethan.

But when the whole mess puts Selene’s life in danger, she suddenly has very personal reasons to get Ethan’s body back. Between her uncomfortable relationship with Micah, and problems with her boss, Selene learns just how much trouble it can be when you don’t follow the rules…

Sneak Peak:

The cause of death was immediately apparent; her chest was covered in deep, garish wounds. Some of them looked as though the beastie had been trying to dig her insides out. Bile rose in my throat. I wanted to take a steadying breath, but the air was tainted with the stench of death, and I didn’t want to pull any more of that into my lungs than was necessary. Time to do a closer inspection.

The feeling of familiarity still nagged at me. I pulled on a pair of gloves and knelt down near the woman’s head. Micah had already gloved up and was sorting through his bag of runes.

“What are you doing?” Micah said sharply. I looked up at him with my hand stretched halfway toward the body.

“Inspecting,” I said. “That’s what we came here to do, right? I want to see her face.”

He stared at me a moment longer, then went back to his runes. I really hoped whatever had crawled up his butt and died would eventually find its release, because Micah could really use a big dose of unclench. I refocused on the body and carefully brushed the woman’s hair away from her face until I could see enough of her features to make my eyes widen. I gasped and sat back on my heels. Micah looked at me again.

“What?” he demanded. “Do you recognize her?”



Friday, April 19, 2013

Affairs of the Dead -- Now Available!

I'm happy to announce that Affairs of the Dead has officially been released into the world! (squee!) It's been a long and very often hard journey to publication, but I could not be happier to have made it to this point. No matter how well the book does or doesn't do, I will always be excited and happy that the dream I had since I started scribbling my first book on computer paper when I was fourteen has finally come true. I hope you will all check it out!

Buy Affairs of the Dead here:




Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Cover Reveal - Affairs of the Dead

There are only two more days until Affairs of the Dead is released, so I'm happy to whet your appetites with the cover, and I'll throw in the first page just for fun. I'm very happy with the cover, so here it is:


Chapter One

I was in a strip club trying to help a ghost get laid, which was challenging but not impossible. It was just extremely taxing on the necromancer extraordinaire (me) who had to channel energy into the ghost to make her corporeal enough to entice one of the stripper boys. Technically what I was doing was illegal, but it was my job to help ghosts settle their affairs so they could move on to eternally ever after, and Julia’s unfinished business was that she’d died a virgin. I’d made it as easy as I could for her by starting at a strip club; if she couldn’t get some here, I wasn’t sure how much lower I could scrape the barrel.

Julia’s prolonged virginity was an enigma to me, even though she told me that she’d been waiting for her soul mate. I just didn’t understand why that meant she couldn’t hit up a bar; get drunk; and have a fun, regret-filled weekend that included the walk of shame. At least she’d have been in better shape once Soul Mate came around.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Affairs of the Dead - Nine days til release! + Blog Tour Info

My excitement is growing because my debut novel, Affairs of the Dead, is set to come out on April 19th, that's only ten days away now! I've seen my cover draft and am happy with it, and I hope to be able to reveal it soon. Meanwhile, starting tomorrow, I will be guest blogging on a few blogs over the next few weeks, here's the schedule:

April 11th - Anne Lange
April 17th - Ally Shields
April 24th - Marie Carhart
April 24th - Niecey Roy
April 29th - Fel Wetzig
May 3rd - Shehanne Moore
May 8th - Marie Hall
May 14th - Antonia Vanzandt

I hope you will all follow along with my tour. And if anyone would like to host me on their blog or do a blast post for Affairs once it's released, feel free to contact me!


Friday, April 5, 2013

Finding time to make time

I'm feeling a bit reflective today. I've been thinking lately about being able to find time to fit everything I want to do into my life. I have to admit I am not always the best with time management, sometimes I am superb with it and other times I just laze out. There is never a lack of things for me to do, but sometimes I find myself cycling through all the things I can do to occupy my time only to end up doing nothing at all. Then days and weeks pass by and I start to feel most unproductive. The easy thing to do is complain about it, the hard thing to do is change it.

I haven't been blogging much or very active on social media, and I definitely have not been writing. Sometimes I struggle with that, but I know myself well enough to know that sometimes that's just how it has to be and eventually that spark will come back to me. This year has been a real whirlwind in my personal life, in mostly good ways, so I've been telling myself that real life has been keeping me too busy for my imaginary life, meaning my stories. But that's no excuse and really what I have to do is get myself together and carve out time for everything. I'm the type of person that wants it all, but I can't have it all if I don't make room for everything, right? I've given up on a lot of things in the past, and I've stopped trying when I should have kept going, but for where I am right now I am going to actively try to do things differently. I will find time to make time!

That being said, next week I will be blogging about my upcoming book release later this month. There will be a cover release to share and I will also be giving details about my blog tour. So stayed tuned!