October 2015 Book Blog BINGO Link-Up &Giveaway

Welcome to the June Review and Progress Link-Up for the 2015 Book Blog BINGO Challenge. Before linking up, make sure you signed up for the challenge. Don't forget, you can update or change your goal at any time!

My Goal

A Double BINGO (2 traditional BINGOs in any direction)

My Progress

A book that takes place in a school: The School for Good and Evil

A book purchased in 2014: Shadow and Bone
The second book in a series: Siege and Storm
A book with magic or paranormal characters: Ruin and Rising
A book written by an author that you've never read before: The Donor
A book with romance: A Wizard Rises
A book published in 2015: Bright Fire
A book that made you cry: The Sin Eater's Daughter
A review persuaded you to read it: The Winner's Curse
A book outside your comfort zone: Moneyball
A book that has been on your TBR shelf for two years or longer: Ashes of Foreverland
A book with a dragon: The Girl at Midnight
A book more than 500 pages: Days of Blood & Starlight
A book with a beautiful cover: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
A book with a color in the title: Scarlet
A book you (should have) read in high school: The Book Thief
A book from the New York Times Best Sellers List: Queen of Shadows

Giveaway

Three Surprise YA Books

(trick or treat - it's a surprise!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Shifter: City of Wolves - Blog Tour & Giveaway

Book & Author Details:
Shifter: City of Wolves by Avery Burch
Publication date: August 3rd 2015
Genres: Adult, Paranormal Romance

Amazon

Other Stops on the Blog Tour

Synopsis: He'll risk anything to be inside me. I'm his fated mate.
Lyla:
What the hell am I thinking? I can't fall for a wolf. He's a criminal and an outcast. I'm an elite. If we get caught, they'll destroy us. I'll be disgraced. He'll be tortured and killed. But his wolf instinct has locked on me. He says I'm his fated mate. And every time we're alone together, he melts my heart ... and makes me so wet I'll risk anything to feel him throb inside me.
Zac:
Everything they told me about fated mates is true. And that means I'm in a lot of trouble. I'm risking everything. As a shifter, I'm used to living on the edge. The regime wants me dead. But now it's so much more complicated. I'm obsessed with this girl. I can't get her out of my mind. I need to devour her, body and soul. I know I should resist, for her sake as much as my own, but I physically can't. My wolf lust has locked onto her. There's no way we get out of this alive, but one night inside her will be worth any punishment.

Author Bio
Avery Burch is a hot new paranormal romance author and her series, Shifter: City of Wolves is going to have a huge impact. She writes chilling tales of shifters and heart-wrenching stories of love and lust. If you like your romance spicy, your shifters sexy, your love stories intense, and your heroines passionate, then her books are for you.
She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Prologue

My namE is shay cartEr and i am a shiftEr.
I am no longer afraid to say it. That fear is gone. Years on the road, hunted by police, reviled by my people, tortured by enforcers, those things change a man. Make him hard. A darkness comes over him that even kids on the street notice. They stop smiling, look away, avoid eye contact. The small things hurt the most.
That’s why I was so taken by Zac. He didn’t look at me the way others did. He was just a boy, a young kid alone in the world, but he saw me for the man I could have been. He saw the good in me. He saw me as a father. And he saved my life. I’d spent so many years hunted as an animal, I no longer remembered what it was like to be a man. I was a beast, a monster. I killed. I maimed. I knew the taste of blood. I never surrendered, never turned myself in, and I paid the price.

But this isn’t my story. This is the story of the boy, my son, for I truly think of him as such. Zac is my heart, my soul, and I gave my all to raise and protect him. Now that my life is drawing to an end, I realize how fragile it is. I put my hopes 11 for the future in Zac, my own boy, and trust he will find the happiness I could only pray for.

Yes, pray.
I may be a monster, but I am a pious monster. God speaks through the strangest of creatures, and if He doesn’t speak through Zac, then damn Him, He never spoke at all.
So go, my son. Go to the city. Find who you are. Find where you came from. Find the bone that lies beneath the flesh, and the marrow deep within it. Test your mettle against the crooked old world.

And one day, many years from now, under the glassy spires of the greatest city on God’s green earth, find your sister. Find her and cling to her, hold her and protect her, love her as your own flesh and blood. I could never be the father to her that I was to you. She was taken before she ever knew me.

I imagine she never even knew my name, but I have not for- gotten hers. Years have passed, decades, and every single night as my watery eyes stare into the flames of the fire, her name rests on my lips—Lyla. My daughter. What was taken can never be returned.

Her name lies on my lips, as does her mother’s—the only woman I ever loved—the only person I ever cursed—Edith. Edith Caledon.

Giveaway

Tour Wide (INTL)

10 e-book copies of Shifter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Timekeeper Rising Blitz - Guest Post and Giveaway

Book & Author Details:
Timekeeper Rising by Allyssa Painter
Publication Date: August 1st 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon | B&N

Synopsis:Fifty years ago, the sky cried acid and the earth vomited poison, all due to human destruction. Desperate for a savior, the people called out to the Shunned, a group of Fallen angels on Earth, and allowed them to take over. Now the Shunned rule with unspeakable cruelty, manipulating and torturing the humans in every possible way. Marked for death, Iris Ankea will do anything to end their tyranny and rescue her brother and best friend from their clutches. When she learns that she is God’s chosen Timekeeper and has the power to defeat the Shunned, she sets out with the only man who can help her, the one she thinks just might kill her. With a prophecy about her drawing ever near, Iris must race against time to discover her powers before the world, and her life, end. Can Iris force herself to embrace her role and sacrifice herself to save everyone she loves, or will she lose it all?

Guest Post

What I Wish Young Writers Knew

Age Doesn’t Matter

Yes, you read that correct. I said (or typed) “Age doesn’t matter.” It doesn’t, okay? Let me back up. Of course age matters in some things. I’m not saying it’s a good idea to drink at fourteen. I’m not. Please don’t do that. But in writing, age does not matter. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but I think I really started becoming serious about it in middle school. I started writing this story that ended up filling up three or four notebooks. Yeah, it was ridiculous. But that’s not the point. I stopped writing that story after a while and moved on to other things. In high school, maybe ninth or tenth grade, I wrote my first full-length novel. It’s a little short, but nothing too crazy. After that, I couldn’t stop. I loved writing and I was determined I wanted to publish my book. I wanted to be an author.

So I started researching. I read blogs from authors and advice for writers and all sorts of stuff. And occasionally, someone would address the issue of young authors. And they’d always say things like, “You need to wait to publish until you’re older.” “You’re writing isn’t good enough.” “You’ll look back at those stories later and realize they suck.” And that was so disheartening. Everywhere I looked, everyone said, slow down, wait, you’re not old enough, you’re not good enough. At first, it was enough to make me stop researching. And then the anger seeped in. And the stubbornness. I’m notoriously stubborn. And I decided that I was going to publish my book. I was going to be an author, and I wasn’t going to wait fifteen years just because there was some sort of age requirement.

I started querying my first novel when I was 17 or 18 I think. And I actually had a decent amount of interest. I even had an offer for publication. In the end, I turned it down due to moral/creative differences between myself and the company, which is a perfectly fine thing to do, let me add. You don’t have to take the first contract offered to you. It’s important to find the right company to work with, because you’ll have to work very closely with them.

Anyways, around that time, I finished the Timekeeper, which is what the Duo started out as. I then learned it was way too long and still needed more detail and scenes, so I broke it into two books and finished editing Timekeeper Rising. I queried it for a while, but the idea of angels and demons seemed to turn everyone away. I believed in my book, though, and in myself, so with a lot of support, I decided to self-publish it anyway.

Here’s the part that applies to my point. I am twenty years old. I just turned twenty in May, actually. And I am publishing a book. I am an author. Now, does that suddenly mean all those authors and professionals were wrong, and my book isn’t crap? Well, I guess not technically. Not many people have read it yet, and you can publish anything these days. So, technically speaking, it could be absolutely dreadful. But I don’t think so. Several people have read it for me so far, and they all seem to love it. Is it the best book ever written? I sincerely doubt it. But is it good? Yeah, I think so.

I don’t doubt that one day I’ll look back at this book and think it could be better. But let me tell you a secret. I know of several authors who do that. They look back at the early books and it’s amazing to them to see how far they’ve come. And some authors won’t even look back at them, because they know their new books are way better (at least in their opinion). And these are real adults, guys, not fake adults like me. These people are thirty, forty, fifty years old, and they still do that same thing that people said teens would do. They look back at their early work and know it’s not as good as it could be. Why? Because they’ve grown. We all grow, especially as authors. The more we write, the more we read, the more advice, reviews, and comments we see, the more we learn, and the better our books become. So if this is true for adults, why can’t it be true for teens? Why does age have to matter?

It doesn’t. Age doesn’t matter. Maturity? Sure. Writing ability? Most definitely. But if you’re mature enough, dedicated enough, strong enough, and you have the writing ability, you can be an author. I don’t care if you’re fifteen or a hundred and fifteen. If you can write a good book that people enjoy, and you have tough enough skin and enough dedication to stick through all the unenjoyable businessy stuff of being an author, you can publish a book too, no matter your age. The point is a simple one: Age doesn’t matter. Ability does.

AUTHOR BIO:Allyssa Painter is the author of Timekeeper Rising, the first in the Timekeeper Duo. She graduated from Sissonville High School and attends Concord University for elementary and special education. She dreams of becoming an elementary teacher and continuing to touch the world around her through the novels she writes. In her free time, she enjoys reading fantastical adventures, spending time with her family, and capturing the world around her in photography and writing.

Blog | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

GIVEAWAY

Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)

                                    1 signed copy of Timekeeper Rising
                                    2 ebook copies of Timekeeper Rising

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

June 2015 Book Blog BINGO Link-Up & Giveaway

Welcome to the June Review and Progress Link-Up for the 2015 Book Blog BINGO Challenge. Before linking up, make sure you signed up for the challenge. Don't forget, you can update or change your goal at any time!

My Goal

A Double BINGO (2 traditional BINGOs in any direction)

My Progress

A book that takes place in a school: The School for Good and Evil
A book purchased in 2014: Shadow and Bone
The second book in a series: Siege and Storm
A book with magic or paranormal characters: Ruin and Rising
A book written by an author that you've never read before: The Donor
A book with romance: A Wizard Rises
A book published in 2015: Bright Fire
A book that made you cry: The Sin Eater's Daughter
A review persuaded you to read it: The Winner's Curse
A book outside your comfort zone: Moneyball
A book that has been on your TBR shelf for two years or longer: Ashes of Foreverland

How is your challenge going? Share and link up in the comments

Giveaway 

Prize: Any book from the Book Depository (max $20)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Rules:
Open Internationally as long as the Book Depository ships to you
Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to reply before an alternate winner is picked
All entries must be made via Rafflecopter and are subject to verification
Follow the Yellow Book Road is not responsible for prizes that are lost or damaged in the mail

The Legend of the Light Keeper (Guest Post, Giveaway, Blog Tour)

Author: Kelly Hall
Title: The Legend of the Light Keeper
Series: The Light Keeper Series
Publication Date: March 25, 2015
Publisher: Booktrope
Tour Schedule

Summary: After a hurricane destroys her home, Lily Jordan is ready for life to get back to normal. That would be easy if her mother’s recent engagement hadn’t landed her in a house along Southeast Texas’ most haunted ghost road.
The secluded scenic road is steeped in rich history and legends, but when Lily is given an old diary on her birthday, will she find that those legends hold more for her future than she’s bargained for?
With the help of new friends, Hunter and Owen, and forbidden love, Talon, will she uncover dark secrets from the past and find the key to her own gifts? Is it fate or circumstance that brought her to her new home?
Normal gives way to the paranormal in book one of the Light Keeper series where mystery and suspense will keep you guessing until the very last page.

Guest Post

Tips for Choosing the Right Names for Your Characters

One of my favorite parts of writing is choosing my character’s names. I love creating characters with strong, distinct personalities who are memorable. I love the names I chose for my characters in The Legend of the Light Keeper, but I will admit, those choices taught me a thing or two. So here are some things to consider when naming your characters.

Spell Check: My first issue was spell check. I had chosen names like Lily, Hunter, and Talon that would not pick up on spell check since lily, hunter, and talon are nouns and perfectly acceptable not capitalized. I had to keep a close eye on those words. What I finally did was use my Find feature in Word to go through and double check and make the corrections. I’m glad I kept the names I did, because after writing four more books using those character names, they’ve kind of grown on me. I couldn’t imagine them named anything else, but choosing differently from the start would have saved me a ton of trouble.

Spelling: Choose common spellings. Throwing in a ton of extra letters, changing the common Y to EE or adding in a strange Z and a silent G, H, or X is only going to create more work for you and your reader. I’ve read so many books that had some really memorable names that were spelled ten kinds of crazy, and I didn’t ever, not once think they were awesome names or that the author was extra clever or creative. I thought it was unnecessary and too much of that in one book makes me give up and move on to another. Consider your readers. Give your characters that beautiful name that suits them, but keep it simple.

Avoid confusion: One thing I did with The Legend of the Light Keeper, that didn’t survive past the editing process, was name Lily’s grandmother Grammy. That alone would have been great, but with Owen and Hunter’s grandmother being named Granny, it kind of made for confusion, not only for me, but for my readers. So in the end I changed Grammy to Gram. Make sure that your readers can distinguish who you are talking about with ease. Having to pause to figure it out only slows a reader down.

In closing, I’ll remind you to write what you want. These are only suggestions to help you make easier decisions. The most important advice I can give you is to simply write.

About the AuthorKelly Hall was born and raised in Southeast Texas, and lives in a small town just a stone’s throw from the ghost road where her Light Keeper series is based. When she’s not busy writing, or spending time with her husband and two sons, this self-proclaimed creative junkie dabbles in many different forms of art, including cake decorating and mixed media.

Author Links:
Pinterest | Website | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway

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Sword (Book Blitz + Giveaway + Interview)

Sword by Amy Bai
Publication date: February 10th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon | B&N

Synopsis:Sword shall guide the hands of men . . .
For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.
For over a thousand years, some of Lardan’s fractious provinces have been biding their time.
Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the royal Houses, and the court’s only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of her sixteen years what the future holds for her–politics and duty, the management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed heir to the throne. But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her world–and her closest friends–fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.

Interview

What is your novel about?

Sword is a coming of age high fantasy about a girl pretty much at odds with everything, including and especially herself. It's set in a fictional kingdom called Lardan, one with a long history of magic and war, and a population so complacent they've forgotten that either one ever applied to them. They learn differently when history begins to repeat itself: there's an uprising, the kingdom is thrown into civil war, and the royal family, of which my main character Kyali is a satellite member, is murdered. Kyali, her brother, and the princess are forced into exile with a small army of refugees. Kyali was badly hurt during the uprising, and comes out of that a changed person; unfortunately for her she's now the only person with the training to command what is left of the army, and her friends need her.

Sword is her story, how she learns to deal with what happened to her without shutting out the people she loves, and with the responsibilities she has to shoulder now that the older generation is dead and the kingdom is overrun. It's about loyalty and love, fate and family and politics. It's also violent, occasionally sarcastic, and unabashedly sappy.

What inspired you to write the story?

I had a very sullen young woman with a battered old sword and no patience kicking my frontal lobe. As motivators go, it was a pretty good one.

--Ok, so that's a little dramatic, but really not too far from the truth (except the part about the frontal lobe, of course). Kyali Corwynall started out as a patchwork of some of my favorite characters from books like Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, and Patricia McKillip's Cygnet, going all the way back to Barbara Helen Berger's Gwinna, which I read when I was seven. My brain is like cosmic flypaper: the stuff I like (or hate) sticks, accumulates, eventually acquires a gravitational field, and before I know it light's bending around it and I'm up at 3 am mainlining coffee and my keyboard's broken. Sword was like that. One day I had scattered pieces, and the next I had a character with layers, flaws, goals, scars, and a complicated history. Stories always start that way for me, no matter how cool my premise may be (or how cool I may think it is, anyway) --my characters inspire and drive it, start to finish.

Since your novel is medieval-influenced, can you tell us a bit about your researching journey?

Wow. How I'd love to give you a list of planned, organized steps I took. It would make me feel so much smarter!

But no. I stumbled into the research for Sword much like I did the story itself. I think my research began the moment I realized I had no idea how heavy a sword really was, or how hard it might be to wear armor and, you know, walk at the same time. I remember thinking writing fantasy would be easy (yes, feel free to laugh at me). It didn't take long before I realized it was very, very obvious when I didn't know what I was talking about. So I went from looking up Irish baby names online to running to the library after work to find the Focloir Scoile or The Book of the Sword. I eventually learned to restrain myself, because research can be a wonderful excuse for not writing when you're stuck-- but overall, it was great fun.

What's your best revision tip?

Remember basic dramatic structure when you're reading your draft(s). It definitely doesn't always apply, and definitely shouldn't always apply, but I've found it can be a great lens: I can look at the whole story, each subplot and character arc, each chapter, and each scene with that structure in mind, and I'll always find something to tweak. Or mangle. Or outright kill.

...Revision is a slightly violent process for me.



About The  Auhor 
Amy Bai has been, by order of neither chronology nor preference, a barista, a numbers-cruncher, a paper-pusher, and a farmhand. She likes thunderstorms, the enthusiasm of dogs, tall boots and long jackets, cinnamon basil, margaritas, and being surprised by the weirdness of her fellow humans. She lives in New England with her guitar-playing Russian husband and two very goofy sheepdogs.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway

Individual Blog Giveaway

The Rules:
Open Internationally
Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to reply before an alternate winner is picked
All entries must be made via Rafflecopter and are subject to verification
Follow the Yellow Book Road is not responsible for prizes that are lost or damaged in the mail

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Blitz-Wide Giveaway

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Chandrea: Review, Tour, Giveaway

Author: Marlene Wynn
Publication: September 22, 2014
Source: Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for honest review
Other Stops on the Tour
Amazon | B&N

Summary from Goodreads: Chandrea Averill thinks she’s just like any other normal young woman. But, on the day of her 23rd birthday, her life changes forever.
Surrounded by magical creatures, dangerous sorcery, and insidious political intrigue, Chandrea desperately wants to return to Earth and the only life she’s ever known. But, the longer she stays, the more she realizes that she may be the only one with the power – both magical and political – to save the people of Lyrunia. Will she find the courage to remain and fight for her home world?

Rating: êêêê

Review

I really enjoyed this book and found myself looking forward to reading it every night even if it was only for a chapter or two. The book was well written,  the author really took the time to make sure the reader understands the background story. She did an excellent job of keeping the reader informed throughout the book. The book has a sense of adventure to it, that kept me interested while reading and moved the plot at a good pace. Overall, I liked the characters, but it would have been nice for them to be a tiny bit flawed. The villain is perfectly hateable. The ending was fitting, it felt like a solid close, however there is clearly an open-ness to continue the story. All in all it had all the elements needed to successfully tell an epic fantasy story.

Warning: There may be spoilers ahead!

Now, one of the things that stood out to me was that the first half(ish) of the book reminded me of The Wizard of Oz. There is a girl who is transported from the US to Oz Lyrunia, there is a wicked witch evil queen who wants something that her sister has, the leading lady gathers a group to travel with, poppies golden mist that puts the travelers to sleep in nightmares, and a crystal ball mirror that allows Dorothy Chandrea to see the people she left behind in her old world. Just a few things that stuck out to me, obviously I like The Wizard of Oz and didn't have a problem with any of these small details.

About The  Auhor
Marlene Wynn is a Utah native – fondly referred to as “Utonian” by a friend. She transplanted herself in 1992 from the majestic Rocky Mountains to the beachy shores of sunny Virginia Beach, Virginia and has been there ever since. Though she has worked in the Benefits field for several years, she finally worked up the courage to chase her dream as an author.
Author links:http://www.marlenewynn.com/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8343236.Marlene_Wynnhttps://www.facebook.com/MarleneWynn.Authorhttps://twitter.com/MWynnAuthor

Giveaway

Tour-wide giveaway (US and Canada)

A print copy of Chandrea – The Return of the Avatar Queen, 

A handmade fairy, 

A set of character trading cards.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Inner Fire

Inner Fire by R.L. Stedman
Release Date: 11/30/14
Source: YA Book Tours in exchange for an honest review

Amazon

Tour Schedule

Summary from Goodreads:
‘‘Maybe it would be better if I started at the beginning.’ Gran watched me carefully. ‘This ability we have; my mother, me. You. We draw heat along our bodies; anger makes us flame.’
When her friend is assaulted, Corrine Peterson can’t help reacting. But she didn’t think and now her hands are burnt, Gran is coming to look after her and, scariest of all, strange men are watching her house. Could they be terrorists? Secret agents?
It seems that Gran’s idea of a solution is to introduce Corrine to Rowan. Okay, sure, maybe eighteen year old Rowan is gorgeous – but he has his own troubles. And right now, Corrine doesn’t need complications in her life.
But in a world of surveillance and secrecy, complexity is inevitable. And as the tension mounts Corrine realizes - maybe Gran can help her, after all.

Rating: êêê

Review

I was really intrigued by the fact the this book centered around a girl who could create fire "in a world of surveillance and secrecy", so I was excited when I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning was interesting, however I was really confused. The book was fast paced which made it easy to read. The characters were OK, the only one who stood out was Gran. She was the most well developed character in the book. While all of the characters had a clearly developed back story, I think the delivery of those back stories could have been written in a better way. I really wasn't a fan of Rowan and the development of their friendship and relationship.

This book had A LOT of different (underdeveloped) elements/details going on that it all felt a bit mangled to me, which is the primary thing that lowered my star rating. Overall, it was a great concept that moved at a good pace, but it was an OK read.

About the AuthorMy name is Rachel Stedman. I’m a physiotherapist (physical therapist) by background, but now I work as a freelance contractor. I live in the wild and windy place of Dunedin, New Zealand, with my husband and two kids.
I write mostly for children and young adults. In 2012 I won the Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished YA work and my first novel, A Necklace of Souls, was published by HarperCollins in 2013 (available in the United Kingdom and on Book Depository from June 2015). This year, A Necklace of Souls was awarded Best First Book at the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards and won a Notable Book Award from Storylines. Inner Fire is my second novel. Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

GIVEAWAY

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Book Tour Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours

Boston Book Festival 2014

This Saturday, my mom and I went into Boston to attend the Boston Book Festival. First of all, I can't believe that I have been living under a rock and missing this annual event for such a long time!

The schedule was almost overwhelming, there were so many sessions running at various times and at various locations around Copley Square. So, I browsed the sessions and found my "must do" session, which was "Masters of Fantasy" featuring Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked), Soman Chainani (author of The School for Good and Evil), Holly Black (author of Coldest Girl in Coldtown and co-author of The Iron Trial) and Cassandra Clare (author of City of Bones and co-author of The Iron Trial).

My mom and I got to Copley Square around 10am and browsed the various tents. Honestly it was really cool to see the various vendors and associations that were present. My mom didn't really know what to expect when i invited her, but she ended up purchasing some mystery/thriller books from three local authors and a historical book on New England. My favorite tent was the Boston Public Library tent, they were trying to raise awareness about the importance of libraries and were giving away free books and pins! I walked away with a copy of The Fire Wish by Amber Lough.

Copley Square

Boston Public Library had a map for people to post
a sticker over the city/town of the library they use

I knew that the Masters of Fantasy session would be packed, so after browsing the tents, by mom and I headed over to the Emmanuel Sanctuary. We got there so early, that we were actually able to enjoy a session that was taking place prior to Masters of Fantasy. We got to attend the "Boston Stories: Tears, Triumphs, Mysteries, and Sports" session which had local authors with their local stories. It was a really cool session that I probably wouldn't have attended on my own, but I'm really glad I did.

The Masters of Fantasy

Thank goodness we arrived as early as we did because there was a huge line for the Masters of Fantasy session! The authors started by introducing themselves and their most recent book. Right away I couldn't help but like them all.

Here is a clip of Cassandra and Holly introducing themselves and their new book, they also showed the Book Trailer for the Iron Trial. (How cute is it that Cassandra and Holly are wearing the same dress?!)

Soman also showed the Book Trailer for his new book A World Without Princes.

When it was Gregory's turn, he said he didn't have a fancy video, so instead he would perform a song for us.

When we got the the question/answer portion, we learned quite a few fun things. One of my favorite parts of the session was hearing the authors talk about books that introduced them to fantasy and made them want to be fantasy writers. Some of the books mentioned were: The Lord of the Rings (tip that someone gave Cassandra - if the beginning is too bogged down for you, start at chapter 9), fairy tales, The Chronicles of Prydain, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, The Children of Green Knowe, and The Diamond in the Window.

It was also really cool to hear the "confessions" of the writers, for example Cassandra said that she waits to write the first few chapters until after she has written most of the rest of the book because she likes to know her characters really well. Holly and Soman both said that they write consecutively, but continue to edit (and sometimes rewrite) all previously written chapters as they write new chapters. 

After the moderator finished his questions, they opened the floor for audience questions. Mostly middle grade and high school students lined up to ask their questions. Then, we lined up to purchase books and get them signed. All of the authors were super friendly and kind as they met and signed a seemingly endless number of people and books.

All in all, it was an awesome day! Hopefully next year I'll be able to dedicate more time to the event and attend more sessions!

Me and Cassandra Clare after she signed my books for me!

Me and Holly Black after she signed my books for me!

What I purchased: two copies of The Iron Trial (1 for me and 1 for a giveaway!), one copy of The School for Good and Evil, and one copy of A World Without Princes.

To thank you for reading and following, I have having a few giveaways!

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Seize Me From Darkness: Book Blitz + Guest Post + Giveaway

Seize me From Darkness by Cari Silverwood

(Pierced Hearts #4) - Can be read as a STANDALONE!
Publication date: September 23rd 2014
Genres: Erotica, Romance
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Synopsis:This book is part of a dark erotic fiction series and may disturb some readers.
In this dirty, bloody world we live in, the answers to prayers aren’t always pretty angels.
Retaken by human traffickers, Jazmine’s one hope is ex-cop, ex-mercenary, Pieter, a man with a glower that stops lesser men in their tracks.
She prays he can save her.
But this savior is far from perfect and his flaws may prove as devastating to Jazmine as the torture of her captors.
The fire of dominance never dies.

Guest Post

My Writing of Dark Erotic Romances

I was asked why I write this genre by one of my beta readers and to be honest it’s for two reasons. The first is that I’ve always been enthralled by dark scenes in stories – the serial killer tying the heroine to her bed and torturing her before he thinks about killing her, the ancient Gor series where Earth women are kidnapped and taken to another planet to be enslaved in a Swords and Sorcery type setting, Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series (swoon), and many more.

Second reason? I always knew I loved these but writing a contemporary book with this sort of depraved story as the WHOLE PLOT? I’d not have thought to do it without having read Bianca Sommerland’s Deadly Captive and partially read C.J. Robert’s Captive in the Dark.

Though I didn’t finish reading the latter, it inspired me. I know it’s a great and well-written series but the man in it just never appealed to me. I don’t like bad men as the hero in most books unless I can see a lot of good from square one. Captive in the Dark made me wonder if I could write a book where the man began as a good man.

I planned a story where I could slowly reveal my hero’s inner monster – the part of him that was ecstatic to be a sadist and a Dominant. That story became Take me Break me, a book that featured in the #16 New York Times bestselling collection called Make Me.

Since then I’ve continued my trend of having the man a good person at the beginning of each book. Although Chris in Make me Yours Evermore was a bad guy from the start, his accomplice, Andreas, my Good Samaritan cross happy kidnapper, kept the trend alive.

If making the man good at the beginning is one thing that sets my stories apart from most dark books, another feature might be my settings. I often show off the Australian landscape. All our wonderful beaches and rainforests deserve some attention. In this latest book, Seize me From Darkness, I’ve set most of the action in Papua New Guinea, which is a deeply tropical country, across the sea, to the north of Australia.

However, because much of Seize me From Darkness takes place inside the House, a place designed for the housing and training of sex slaves, I didn’t get to describe much of Papua New Guinea. I did get to show a tropical island though, with gorgeous white sand beaches and assorted sea life. One reader has told me that reading my Pierced Hearts series is like taking a beach holiday. Amusing, considering what happens in the books. I dearly hope her holidays don’t feature torture and abduction. Fiction will always be far more consensual and safe than real life, unless someone glues the eReader to your hand and props open your eyelids.

So there’s some of why and how I write dark fiction. I love it, and it’s my sexual fantasyland too. Enjoy your fiction. Don’t let anyone take it away from you.

About The  Auhor

Cari Silverwood is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer of kinky darkness or sometimes of dark kinkiness, depending on her moods and the amount of time she's spent staring into the night. She has an ornery nature as well as a lethal curiosity that makes her want to upend plots and see what falls out when you shake them.

When others are writing bad men doing bad things you may find her writing good men who accidentally on purpose fall into the abyss and come out with their morals twisted in knots.

This might be because she comes from the land down under, Australia, or it could be her excessive consumption of wine.

Freaking out readers is her first love and her second love is freaking out the people living in her books. Her favorite hobby is convincing people she has a basement...though she really doesn't. Promise. If it existed it would be a terrifying place where you would find all the dangerous things that you never knew you craved.

Own me Until Forever, Book 5 in the Pierced Hearts series, will be out late 2014

My website, if you're curious about my other evil pursuits: http://www.carisilverwood.net/

To find out about upcoming releases, please join Cari's mailing list here carisilverwood.net/about-me.html

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Ice Massacre: Book Blitz + Giveaway + Interview

Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner
Publication date: September 18th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.
For the first time, Eriana Kwai’s Massacre warriors are female, and Meela must fight for her people’s freedom on the Pacific Ocean’s deadliest battleground.

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FREE during the blitz!
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Interview

Give us the tweet-sized version of what Ice Massacre is about.
A teenage girl is sent to battle the hostile mermaids that are driving her people into poverty. A story of love, secrets, and ass-kicking.

What makes Ice Massacre unique?
First, I haven’t seen a lot out there that portrays mermaids for what they really are: flesh-eating sea demons. But I think what also sets it apart is its almost entirely female cast. This island decides to send female warriors to kill the mermaids that plague them, because women don’t fall victim to a mermaid’s supernatural allure. We end up with an all-female war on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Meela, an aboriginal girl who’s never been away from the tiny island she calls home, also has a pretty unique journey of self-discovery. I don’t want to reveal too much. But I think a lot of aspects make this story unconventional.

What’s your favourite thing about the book?I love Meela’s antagonists. Meela’s a tough chick and she has a lot coming at her from all directions. Writing those opposing forces was so much fun.

What’s next for you as a writer?The sequel! This is the first in a trilogy, and I’m hard at work on book two: Ice Crypt.

About The  Auhor
Tiana Warner was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada. She enjoys riding her horse, Bailey, and collecting tea cups.
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