Shop Talk: The Great Justin Bieber and Twilight Experiment (and W*n)

[First, I'm talking about the Loup-Garou and Sentinels over at the Unabridged Bookshelf today, and giving away books or a swag bag, so head over!]

Now, say what? What’s this about Justin Bieber? I’m experimenting on him? Turning him into Dr. Frankenbieber? Putting him in a piece of fanfic where he comes between Edward and Bella? Setting up a Bieber versus Jacob smackdown?

No, no. It's even more onerous than that.

The buzzword in publishing these days is “discoverability.” How can a new author get “discovered” amid all the bazillion new releases coming from big publishers, small presses, indies?

No one has the answer; certainly not me. I wish I did. As a new author (yeah, it seems like I’ve been around forever but my first book only came out a year ago), it’s frustrating to try and figure out how to break through the chaos and noise of the Internet and let people who might enjoy my books know they exist? And once they know the books exist, how does one get them to read?

As a reader, how do you find out about new authors? What is the thing that makes you go from thinking “Hm, that sounds interesting. I’ll have to check that out after the series is finished or when it goes on sale at Amazon for 99 cents or when I win a free copy online” to, instead, thinking, “I’m gonna buy that now”?

And how does Justin Bieber fit into this scenario? Or Twilight?

A few weeks ago, I met a marketing dude all excited about the secret he’d said he'd found to search engine optimization, or SEO. If we could put certain words in the titles of our posts, he said, people searching for that word in Google or Bing would flock to our blogs, see our books, and run out and buy copies. “Put Justin Bieber’s name in your blog title and the hits to your blog page will soar!” he preached.

Um, but there’s a problem. I don’t write books about Justin Bieber, or even characters who listen to Justin Bieber. I wouldn’t recognize a Biebertune if it bit me on the backside. I mean, what’s the point in collecting blog hits if the people realize within two seconds that there’s no real Bieberlove going on here and they bounce off to another website? I think that’s the type of behavior that gives marketing a bad name. I was annoyed. I tuned Mr. Marketer out.

However, I have learned, in the course of this blog post, that I enjoy making up Bieberlicious new words—LOL. And yeah, I put his name in my title today as an experiment to see how my blog hits were impacted. I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, the search for how to find readers continues. I have the third book in my Sentinels series coming up and would like to see this story through to its completion, but that will depend on how the book sells. It's an art, this writing thing, but it's also a business. It once again comes back to discoverability.

So some questions for you as readers:

n      How do you find new books?

n      What convinces you to take a chance on a new author?

n      Do reviews on Goodreads or Amazon influence you?

n      Do  you pay attention to ads on Goodreads or Facebook?

n      Which book-review sites do you tend to gravitate toward?

n      How much does book price impact your decision-making?

As a reader myself, I’ll say I find new authors through doing my Fiction Affliction columns for tor.com and my Monday Reader’s Choice contests here for Preternatura, so I'm not a good test case. I only read reviews if I’m on the fence about something. I occasionally click on FB ads but almost never on Goodreads ads. I usually keep an eye on the blogs listed on my blogroll (right column). I don’t consider book cost unless it's extraordinarily high; I’ve been burned so many times on free/cheap books that I tend to treat them with the same rigor as a $10 book.

How about you? I’ll choose from among today’s comments for my regular Shop Talk $10 gift card to the book retailer of choice! Let's talk about discovery!

Richard Dansky on "The Multiclassed Writer's Journey" and C*ntest

First, a quick and dirty (well, not so dirty) commercial message. Come and visit me today over at My Guilty Obsession, where DJ is assessing the potential suitability of all the men in her life and offering a giveaway. And thanks to The Luv'NV for the Penton review today! Again, comment at these spots for  entries into the $15 book giftcard giveaway.

Now, I'm happy to be postponing Shop Talk this week to welcome Richard Dansky to the website. Rich's new book is Vaporware, which will be released this week. I'm looking forward to digging into this one. I love the idea of sentient video games, and if anyone understands the gaming industry it's this author. He's spent fourteen years in the video-game industry, and is the Central Clancy Writer for Ubisoft/Redstorm. Named by Gamasutra as one of the top 20 game writers in 2009, he has written for games ranging from OUTLAND to the upcoming SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST. Richard is also the author of six novels, including the critically praised FIREFLY RAIN. You can learn more about Richard by visiting his website or by following him on Twitter. 

And, I can't help myself. I have to comment on the cover. I'm really not a fan of this cover. I like the illustrative style. I like the color. I like the chick reaching through the screen for her hapless victim, and I understand that a lot of the women in video games are of the boobalicious variety and it's playing on that. Still...Cover up those things, lady! LOL. Okay, I got it out of my system. 

On with the show, and I think you'll enjoy Rich's post about moving from video-game writing to novels!

ABOUT VAPORWARE:  Video game projects get shut down all the time, but when the one Ryan Colter and his team have poured their hearts into gets cut, something different happens: the game refuses to go away. Now Blue Lightning is alive, and it wants something from Ryan - something only he can give it. And everybody knows how addictive video games can be… 

And now, let's hear from Richard...

 The Multiclassed Writer’s Journey 

Moving into writing fiction from writing games was about precisely one thing: whose stories I would be writing.

When you’re writing games, whether it be tabletop RPGs or AAA-level video games, the stories you’re crafting aren’t yours. They’re the players’. Those narratives are specifically designed – when designed well - not to live on their own, but rather to be picked up and inhabited by the people who will, each in turn, be playing your game. This is a great thing, mind you - creating narrative elements that get turned into stories by their interaction with the player means that you’re giving every player something potentially unique and theirs. There’s a reason that when players tell stories about their gaming experiences, they always start them, not with “Master Chief” or “My Lasombra,” but with “I.” What they’re telling are in every sense their stories, created by their specific choices and actions and play styles. That holds true even if I wrote the narrative bits they then arranged; it’s their involvement that makes it their stories, and not mine.

But the tradeoff in writing stories for other people to assume ownership of is precisely that - you’re writing to possibility, to what the player might do. Even the most constrained RPG scenario or rail shooter has immense amounts of player choice; the thing that makes a game a game is the same thing that makes it impossible to be certain where a player’s going to be and what they’re going to be looking at when you want to have a big dramatic scene. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that - it’s what the player chooses to do at that moment, and since it’s their game, more power to ‘em. 

But if you want to tell your own, precise story, then the odds are you need to look somewhere besides games to tell it. You’ll need someplace where the content is formalized, someplace without players who’ll want to do their own thing with “your” characters. Comic books, perhaps, or screenplays, or in my case, fiction.

Before I got into games, I’d actually quit writing fiction. I’d written in high school and my freshman year of college, and then, like an awful lot of other young writers, I ran into something that sent me careening off the rails. I stopped writing stories (though I kept running RPGs and LARPs). Any writing I did was deep in the thickets of literary criticism. 

And then, along came the opportunity to write games. A friend from college was working at a tabletop RPG company and remembered that I’d wanted to write. She also remembered that I’d have 25-person combat scenarios in my weekly RPG cluttering up the living room, so she asked me to tackle a couple of chapters of a setting book she was designing for Wraith – a game about ghosts that needed some prefab haunted houses.

So I bit. I started writing RPGs. And with it, I eventually realized, I was writing the underpinnings of other people’s stories. Characters, yes. Settings, of course. The rules that served as boundaries for the action? Absolutely. All the pieces that went into storytelling, except the actual story. 

The first fiction I wrote professionally was tabletop RPG tie-in fiction (which is what we used to call transmedia before we had quite so many media to tie in), an entirely sensible arrangement that let me cautiously test my craft in unfamiliar waters. After all, these were worlds I knew, with rules I knew – I’d helped build several of them - and the walls of my sandbox had been built for me. Within those preset boundaries – no turning vampires into space aliens allowed - I was free to play, and to make the characters do any damn thing I wanted to. It was a small step, but a key one. I’d been putting the narrative elements together for years, and now I had to actually sequence them in a way that made sense. 

Which, I confess, was a lot harder than it looked. But I had the advantage of building on those worlds I knew, letting me focus on getting better at the stuff that was new to me. That produced stories that appeared in sourcebooks, then in tie-in anthologies, and then finally in novels.

Needless to say, that’s when I switched gears and got into video games, and I had to learn a whole new style of writing all over again. When you’re writing for video games, there are a lot of things you have to do that you don’t do anywhere else. For one thing, you have to write systemic dialogue, the so-called “barks” that play automatically when triggered by game action. In practical terms, these translate to the innumerable variants on “Arrgh! He shot me!” that a game will cycle through as you mow down endless waves of enemies. These lines can add up, and they can add up quickly. 

What you don’t have to write, however, is Everything. You don’t have to write setting, because there are scads of incredibly talented artists whose job it is to create the world and everything in it. You don’t have to describe how something moves, because the player will actually see it move, thanks to the work of animators and modelers and riggers. You don’t have to write out action sequences because in most games, that’s what the player does. You get the idea. 

And I immersed myself in that style of writing, doing my best to master it. Which meant scaling back on fiction and everything else, until once again the bug to write my own stories – not stories from someone else’s world, not stories that was made by the a team that I was a part of – bit.  Which meant pulling out those skills that game writing hadn’t needed, scraping off the rust, and putting them to work once again.

But this time, I think, I was better prepared to use them well. The path I’d taken had allowed me to focus on various aspects of the craft, each in turn. RPGs taught me worldbuilding and setting. Tie-in fiction helped me learn structure. Video games forced me to focus on dialog and boiling down exposition. And putting all of those together meant, when I sat down to write Firefly Rain, my first original novel, that I was somewhere near ready.

 In the end, I don’t think of myself as a fiction writer or a game writer exclusively. I think of myself as a storyteller, one who’s been lucky enough to have worked in different fields and gotten to tell different stories as a result. And if the experience in one media can inform what I do in another – if my time in video games can help me tell the story of Vaporware – then I wouldn’t change a thing along the way. 

Thanks, Richard!  

Like to win a copy of Vaporware, or a mystery book from my Towering TBR pile? Tell me if you're a gamer (or were at one time)? I played some of the very early RPGs back in the D-and-D days, but nothing of recent vintage, although I find them really interesting. If you're a gamer, do you have a favorite? 

The Human Condition? Meet Pembroke Sinclair (and W*n a Book)

[A few appearances today. Leave a comment to be in on the $10 book gift card from your e-tailer of choice! I'm at the awesome Grave Tells site today, where I'm telling about the Sentinels of New Orleans characters' greatest fears. Do you want to know what REALLY scares Alex? There's a extra giveaway with this post. I'm also at Books and Tales, talking about writing the Sentinels series. There's also a book giveaway with this one!

Today, please help me welcome Pembroke Sinclair to Preternatura! She is stopping by as part of the virtual book tour featuring her latest release, Wucaii, which was released April 12 by MuseItUp Publishing. I only have one word for you: DRAGONS!

Pembroke, who also writes under the name Jessica Robinson, is a freelance content editor for Musa Publishing, as well as a content and line editor for eTreasures Publishing. You can learn more about Jessica/Pembroke  by visiting her website, on Facebook or on her blog. 

ABOUT WUCAII:  After five hundred years’ labor destroying worlds, half-dragon half-human Aelana returns to her home planet. She expects to be anonymous, but instead she is worshipped as a god. She finds the reincarnation of her centuries-dead first and only love and life begins anew. Little does she know, however, that a shrewd and formidable evil lays in wait, one with the power to undo everything she’s worked for. To maintain the balance of the universe, she must confront and destroy the menace before it annihilates her and everything she loves.

And now, let's here from Pembroke...

The Human Condition
by Pembroke Sinclair 

I am fascinated by the human condition.  I think most of us are. It’s intriguing to speculate and figure out what our fellow human beings are thinking. It’s fascinating to imagine how they would react in certain situations. Authors and readers alike enjoy exploring various scenarios and seeing how characters react. That’s why stories are so popular.

Wucaii is no exception to that theory. Like so many other stories, it explores the human condition and how characters react when faced with impossible odds. The only difference is that the main character isn’t exactly human anymore. She’s a human-dragon hybrid. Not only is she trying to figure out what makes her a human, she has to figure out how to fit in with the dragons.

Sometimes the best way to understand the human race is to step outside of it. How would different creatures perceive us? How would they react to what we do? It was a fun experiment to see if I could answer those questions from a mixed perspective. It was also challenging because I’m a human. My perception is biased because of what I am. I had to step outside of myself and imagine what it would be like to be a creature looking from the outside in. But that also had its challenges because Aelana still retains her human characteristics.  My goal was to find the balance between the two.

I really enjoyed writing Aelana as a human-dragon hybrid. It was fun to explore her human compassion and heartache and try to balance that with her dragon knowledge. My ultimate goal, however, was to write an interesting story. I think I accomplished that, but the readers are the only ones who can tell for sure!

Thanks, Pembroke!  For those of us that write about characters who may be part human or non-human, it is definitely a challenge to present them through their eyes rather than our own. What do you guys think?  The issue reminds me of our recent blog read of the first book in the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter--she does such an amazing job of getting inside the beast's head and really differentiating between Jane's voice and that of her beast.

And, sure, leave a comment and I'll pick something good from my towering stacks of TBR reads--two of which collapsed last night and are creating a thick booklike "carpet" across my office floor. I'm one step away from an episode of "Hoarders: Buried Alive." Yeah, maybe I'll even send TWO books!

New Releases May 18—May 24 and Readers Choice C*ntest

First, some housekeeping...I have a few appearances around the blogosphere today, and will compile the commenters for a $15 Amazon (or choice of book retailer) gift card--international welcome!
     First, I'm doing an interview over at Musings of the Mistress of the Dark Path, and talking about the Sentinels series (and thanks for the awesome reviews!)
      Next, thanks to Rahna at Let's Get Booked for the fun reviews of Royal Street and River Road today!
      Finally, there's supposed to be an interview at Books and Tales today. As of 7 a.m. CDT, it wasn't up yet, but there is a spotlight of the Penton series.

And now to reader's choice....

One more fairly light week for new releases before the list really begins growing again for the last week of May and the first week of June. Fair warning, we will see more than seventy new releases in the next two weeks alone.  So get that wishlist ready! Still, there are some interesting titles out this week--if you're a fan of the Malazan fantasy saga, there's a new installment this week. Also new releases from Donna Grant's hot paranormal romance series and the Bannon and Clare series from Lilith Saintcrow.

Now….What do you want to read? As always, leave a comment telling me the book you’d most like to win, and maybe random.org will make your wishes come true. Your choice of print or digital unless otherwise stated. International? Of course! As long as Book Depository delivers to your country, please enter. If you’d prefer the first book in a series listed here, that’s okay, too. 

A Dicourse in Steel: A Tale of Egil and Nix, by Paul S. Kemp, (May 21, Angry Robot)

Egil and Nix have retired, as they always said they would. No, really, they have. No more sword and hammer-play for them. But when two recent acquaintances come calling for help, our hapless heroes find themselves up against the might of the entire Thieves Guild. And when kidnapping the leader of the most powerful guild in the land seems like the best course of action, you know you’re in over your head.  (ebook Only) 

Blood and Bone: A Novel of the Malazan Empire (Malazan Empire #5), by Ian C. Esslemont, (May 21, Tor)

The emerald banner of the Visitor descends like a portent of annihilation. On the continent of Jacuruku, the Thaumaturgs have mounted another expedition to tame the neighboring wild jungle, called Himatan. It is said to be half of the spirit realm and half of the earth. It is said to be ruled by an entity whom some name the Queen of Witches, and some a goddess: Ardata. Saeng grew up knowing the rule of the magus Thaumaturgs. When her rulers mount an invasion of the neighboring jungle, voices send her and her brother on a desperate mission. To the south, the desert tribes are united by the arrival of a foreign warleader. Word comes to K'azz, and mercenary company the Crimson Guard, of a contract in Jacuruku. And their employer, none other than Ardata herself.  (U.S. Release)  

Dark Flight (The Shadow Slayers #3), by Cassi Carver, (May 21, Samhain)

Kara has been training for months to help take down Brakken, the merciless black-wing who is making life hell for the Demiare. When Julian discovers a scout has been tracking Kara, he wants her out of the fight. Gavin isn't much better. He's already lost so much to Brakken and has no intention of allowing the woman he loves to be the next sacrifice. He and Julian have their hands full trying to fight Brakken's army and keep Kara safe, especially after her recent visit to the white-wings. Since her return, she's been acting strange. Kara doesn't have time to think about her conflicted feelings for Gavin and Julian. If she thought it was complicated evading scouts and fending off black-wings, she's learning that's nothing compared to loving two strong-willed men. (ebook only) 

Midnight's Kiss: Part 2, by Donna Grant, (May 21, St. Martin’s)

Thrown together by fate, Arran, a Dark Warrior and Dr. Veronica “Ronnie” Reid find themselves caught up in a passion that neither of them expected—one that neither of them can control. Ronnie is unsure if she can trust this man who keeps dangerous secrets. Arran knows that his insatiable desire is the worst thing that could have happened and yet he cannot turn away from her, not when he could be so close to the answers he needs. And now danger is hot on their heels after Ronnie discovers something that would have been better left buried. Arran finds that he must protect her, not only from the rising threat, but perhaps from himself as well, especially when she uncovers his true identity.  (ebook only) 

Storm of Sharks (Wereworld #5), by Curtis Jobling (May 21, Viking Juvenile)

The epic Wereworld saga continues as Drew Ferran, werewolf, leader of people, and the rightful king of Lyssia, battles the evil Catlords who seek to oppress the kingdom. As the war’s scope widens, Drew and his allies take the fight to the high seas. But just as many terrors await them on the water as on land, with pirates and scoundrels abounding and a host of previously unknown werelords emerging to take sides in the war that threatens to destroy the Seven Realms. 

Tarnished, by Rhiannon Held, (May 21, Tor)

Andrew Dare has found his mate in Silver, but they haven’t found the pack they can call home. Some of his old friends think he should return and challenge Roanoke for leadership of all the werewolf packs on the East Coast. But Andrew has baggage, his violent history with the packs of Spain and the rumors of his lack of control. And then there’s Silver, the werewolf who has lost her wild self to a monster’s assault, and who can no longer shift forms. But perhaps together they can overcome all the doubters. 

The Garden of Stones, by Mark Barnes, (May 21, 47North)

An uneasy peace has existed since the fall of the Awakened Empire centuries ago. The hybrid Avān share the land with the people they once conquered. With the Empress-in-Shadows an estranged ghost, it is the ancient dynasties of the Great Houses and the Hundred Families that rule. Visions have foretold that Corajidin, dying ruler of House Erebus, will not only survive, but rise to rule his people. He seeks to make his destiny certain by plundering the ruins of his civilization's past for the science needed to ensure his survival. Mercenary warrior-mage Indris, scion of the rival House Nasarat, stands most powerfully in the usurper's bloody path. It is Indris who reluctantly accepts the task of finding the only one able to steer the teetering nation towards peace. 

The Planet Thieves, by Dan Krokos, (May 21, Starscape)

Two weeks ago, thirteen-year-old Mason Stark and seventeen of his fellow cadets from the Academy for Earth Space Command boarded the SS Egypt. The trip was supposed to be a routine voyage to log their required spacetime for summer quarter. Routine goes out the airlock when they’re attacked by the Tremist, an alien race who have been at war with humanity for the last sixty years. With the captain and crew dead, injured, or taken prisoner, Mason and the cadets are all that’s left to warn the ESC. They find out exactly why the Tremist chose this ship to attack: the Egypt is carrying a weapon that could change the war forever. Mason will have to lead the cadets in an assault to take back the ship, rescue the survivors, and recover the weapon. Before there isn’t a war left to fight. 

The Red Plague Affair (Bannon and Clare #2), by Lilith Saintcrow, (May 21, Orbit)

Emma Bannon, Sorceress Prime in service to Queen Victrix, has a mission: to find the doctor who has created a powerful new weapon. Her friend, the mentath Archibald Clare, is only too happy to help. A spot of Miss Bannon's excellent hospitality and her diverting company may be just what he needs. Their quarry is a fanatic, and his poisonous discovery is just as dangerous to Britannia as to Her enemies. A single man has set Londinium ablaze, and Clare finds himself in the middle of distressing excitement, racing against time and theory to find a cure. Miss Bannon, of course, has troubles of her own, for the Queen's Consort Alberich is ill, and Her Majesty unhappy with Bannon's loyal service. And there is still no reliable way to find a hansom when one needs it most. 

Transparent, by Natalie Whipple, (May 21, Harper Teen)

Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is. An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years, everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults. After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily. Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl. 

Super Bass: A Tor.Com Original, by Kai Ashante Wilson, (May 22, Tor)

Gian returns to Sea-john from the Kingdom's wars certain that he has skills beyond killing, death and destruction. He needs to prove to himself that love is just as strong, if not stronger, than his hate. The Summer King gives him this opportunity.  (ebook only) 

Five entries possible: +1 for comment to tell me what book you want, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow, +1 for a Tweet or RT about the contest, +1 for a Facebook follow. This contest is international to any place Book Depository ships. Contests end at midnight CDT U.S. on Saturday, and winners are announced on Sunday’s blog. It’s the responsibility of the winner to contact me with their mailing info. Books unclaimed after a month will go into the Book Horde list (see tab at the top of the page).

Now….go forth and comment!

Behind the Scenes with Elysian Fields (and Weekly W*nners)

If you're waiting for a book prize from me, I'm trying to get caught up (again) this week, so be patient! I'll get there. In the meantime...I'm continuing my trip through the Style Sheet for Elysian Fields, book three of the Sentinels of New Orleans series. And read on to the end for prize info!

So, here's how the Style Sheet works. In the process of getting a book actally published, authors go through a number of stages. Copyedits are when an editor with an eagle-eye for detail has combed through the manuscript, made grammatical and house-style changes, asked questions, or made notes when something needs clarifying. They also create a Style Sheet that makes notes of unusual words or spellings, or proper nouns, as they occur in the book.

So...I thought it would be fun to go through the Style Sheet for Elysian Fields, which might give some clues as to things you'll see in there, as well as some background on the series in general....Today, we tackle the letter F (you can find the As here, Bs here, Cs here, Ds here, Es here).

Fae...Yes, as in faeries and folk. Although only mentioned briefly in Elysian Fields, they are one of the major prete groups in the Beyond, and as the players begin to align themselves either with or against the wizards, it's unclear at this point where the Fae will come down. The other major groups, of course, are the wizards, the shifters and weres, the vampires, the historical undead...and the elves. The historical undead have no particular powers and thus are a minor group--their big advantage is in being essentially immortal. Especially one dangerous undead pirate.

Fire Elves. One of the four tribes of the elven nation, and the smallest. The Fire Elves, known in their own language as the Tân, were the origins of Charlie, DJ's elven staff. And they might want it back. Or they might have something else in mind...

Five Happiness. A Chinese restaurant on Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City New Orleans. Rand brings dinner for DJ from Five Happiness in one scene in the book. She wants him to go home, but leave the food.

Flossie and Freddie. Known to readers of a certain vintage (ahem) as the younger set of Bobbsey Twins (Bert and Nan being the older ones). At one point, DJ refers to herself and Rand as "Flossie and Freddie" because their coloring is similar--only she's pissed that he's prettier than she is.

Flying Chairs Carousel. A ride at the now-defunct Six Flags New Orleans. Six Flags drowned under

eight or ten or twelve feet of floodwater in the post-Katrina flooding, and never reopened. Yet it still sits there today, rusted, covered in graffiti, the chairs of the Flying Chairs Carousel swinging in the breeze. Utterly creepy. Several key scenes in Elysian Fields take place at Six Flags--one in particular involves the Flying Chairs Carousel. Note from the photo the graffiti across the base, and the small machinery room inside the base, as well as the overall structure.  

French Market. On lower Decatur Street in the French Quarter lies the French Market. These days, it contains not only the huge Farmer's Market where all the local chefs come to get the freshest food for their day's fare, but individuals can buy as well. Below that is the ginormous marketplace where one can buy everything from jewelry to t-shirts to alligator jawbones to...well, anything. And, as you'll see in the photo below, I absolutely am not joking when I say I've eaten fried gator on a stick!

F-bomb. It appears once in Elysian Fields, but it's in French. Jean says that doesn't count--and he wasn't the one who said it. Remember Jean's half-brother, Dominique Youx? He's baaaack, and he still doesn't like DJ.

Now....did you win a book this week? You know the drill. If you see your name, please email me at suzannej3523 at gmail dot com with your mailing info. 

TERI ANNE won an ARC of Michael Logan's Apocalypse Cow.

BREANA won a copy of Brandon Sanderson's Arithmatist.

MIKI won a $10 book credit or equivalent from Book Depository.

Congrats, everyone!

Check back tomorrow with a new Reader's Choice contest!

Meet The Drift Lords with Nancy Cohen and C*ntest

Today, Nancy Cohen has stopped by as part of her virtual blog tour.  She is here to introduce us to The Drift Lords, featured in WARRIOR PRINCE (Drift Lords #1), and WARRIOR ROGUE (Drift Lords #2), which were published by The Wild Rose Press.  Nancy if offering some great prizes on this virtual tour.  Read on for a list of prizes and your chance to enter and win! 

ABOUT WARRIOR ROGUE:  When fashion designer Jennifer Dyhr loses her lead actor for a video-game commercial, a replacement literally drops from the sky. Reluctant to let him leave, she hires him as a model for her studio. But when terrorists attack their flight home, Jen must awaken powers she didn’t know she had to protect them both. Will she be able to keep her heart safe from the sensual man beside her? When space ops warrior Paz Hadar falls through a spatial rift onto Jen’s set, he soon realizes she is essential to his mission. Not only must he protect her, his success depends upon her special powers. But as they struggle to stay one step ahead of the enemy, he discovers that fighting his attraction to the lovely Jen is as much a challenge as keeping them both alive.

Click the tab above to read Chapter 1 of WARRIOR ROGUE!

And now, let's talk to Nancy about her inspiration for these books as well as introduce us to the team members:

Where did the idea for the series come from?
The idea for the Drift Lords Series came from a ride at Disney’s Epcot theme park. In the Norway pavilion is a ride called Maelstrom. You board a boat that glides into a dark tunnel and rises up a steep incline. At the top are three trolls who cast a spell on you to disappear. Suddenly, your boat is whisked backward through time into Norwegian history. I loved the idea of evil trolls and Norse mythology. Thus my series took root. I decided to mix magic and myth into modern times.

Who are the Drift Lords?

The Drift Lords are galactic warriors sent to Earth to seal a dimensional rift opened by an ancient enemy. To defeat the invaders, they must join forces with a small group of Earth women, whose legendary powers are just awakening.

Rules of the Multiverse

Just as the Earth has tectonic plates, dimensional plates exist on a cosmic energy level. These fuel an electromagnetic grid that intersects at twelve distinct geographic areas. These points, known as Vile Vortices, are sites of anomalous activity. Twelve such locations exist around the world. The Bermuda Triangle is one of them.

When the dimensional plates grind against each other, the resultant pressure forces open a door between dimensions. Normally, the event horizon at this natural rift produces a substance called cors particles. When their mass reaches a critical level, the resultant pressure forces the rifts to close.

The Trolleks have devised a means to force open the rifts and keep them from shutting down. With the portals remaining open, the accumulation of cors particles will breach the point of no return. The dimensional drift will widen, causing a massive shock wave that will destroy everything in existence. In the meantime, the Trolleks have invaded Earth with the goal of enslaving mankind.

The Drift Lords are born with a special trait that becomes evident at puberty. They are able to sniff cors particles, meaning they can tell when a portal is open. Their job is to repel the Trollek incursion and seal the rifts.  However, it’s not so simple this time. They need the help of a special group of Earth women with special powers to deal with the mythological element and to fulfill an ancient prophecy.

How Do They Operate?

The Drift Lords work in teams of seven. The Sacred Seven represent earth, fire, water, air, time, space, and the Wise One, creator of all. The team trains at a mountain retreat on the planet Karrell for four weeks per year. When they are not engaged in training or off on a mission, the warriors follow their own careers.

The Drift Lords polarize themselves against the Trollek mind touch. If a Trollek touches you, it sets off a chemical reaction, and you become their mind slave. The Drift Lords can also use a nose numbing spray to ward off the alluring scent of a Trollek female. But the best method of protection is the immunity transferred by physical intimacy with their destined mate.

After one of them is killed during a skirmish with the Trolleks, only six are left. The rest of the League was decimated during the Great Purge. These six warriors are the only remaining hope to save mankind.

The Team Members

ZOHAR THORALD is Captain of the Drift Lords and Crown Prince of the Star Empire. He’s the military strategist. Reluctant to be crowned emperor, Zohar has to learn to accept his destiny.

PAZ HADAR is the Communications and Linguistics specialist. When not deployed as a Drift Lord, he repairs space telecom relays. He can say, “Come to bed with me” in numerous languages.

LORD MAGNOR is an expert swordsman who likes to whittle wood carvings of animals and watch crime shows on TV in his free time. Initially hired as Zohar’s bodyguard and lacking the genetic trait that defines a Drift Lord, he becomes a full-fledged member of the team.

DAL FIZORE is the Demolitions expert. He’s a sinewy, muscled fighter who likes to blow things up for recreation.

KAJ DURET is the team’s engineer. He prefers working with machines rather than people, as they can’t hurt him. In his spare time, he puts together old spacecraft engines.

YARON OF THE GLADE is a medic and science officer. When off duty, he plays melancholy music on his larp, a stringed instrument, and he enjoys the serenity of nature.

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Drive-By Review: Apocalypse Cow, by Michael Logan (W*n a Copy!)

First off, only one new guest post today--an interview over at Keeping Up with the Rheinlanders, where I'm answering the dreaded "Tell us five interesting things about yourself." It always reminds me that I'm really not interesting at all...but head over if you get a chance and see for yourself--and yes, there's a giveaway! (And also thanks for the great review of Royal Street!)

If you've missed some of the earlier spots during the week, you can scroll down to find the links. There are lots of giveaways.

Now, I'm excited today to be bringing you a book that I'm cheating on a bit because it's not really a drive-by review in that I didn't stop at page 50. Actually, I finished it. I had to finish it. I couldn't NOT finish it. So let me introduce you to a delightfully perverse novel that will be out next Tuesday (in the US; it was previously released in the UK) called Apocalypse Cow.

ABOUT APOCALYPSE COW: If you think you've seen it all -- WORLD WAR Z, THE WALKING DEAD-- you haven't seen anything like this. From the twisted brain of Michael Logan comes Apocalypse Cow, a story about three unlikely heroes who must save Britain . . . from a rampaging horde of ZOMBIE COWS! Forget the cud. They want blood. It began with a cow that just wouldn't die. It would become an epidemic that transformed Britain's livestock into sneezing, slavering, flesh-craving four-legged zombies. And if that wasn't bad enough, the fate of the nation seems to rest on the shoulders of three unlikely heroes: an abattoir worker whose love life is non-existent thanks to the stench of death that clings to him, a teenage vegan with eczema and a weird crush on his maths teacher, and an inept journalist who wouldn't recognize a scoop if she tripped over one. As the nation descends into chaos, can they pool their resources, unlock a cure, and save the world? Three losers. Overwhelming odds. One outcome . . . Yup, we're screwed.

Drive-by Review: Well, obviously, I loved this book, probably because I've been somewhat perplexed by the onslaught of zombie novels in the last few years. I'm not sure why, but I don't like zombies. In fact, I need to rewrite the lyrics to the old Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays," only my version will be "I don't like zombies."



Now, putting that video in here isn't as weird as one might think. (Never mind that I was a big B-Rats fan and it gave me an excuse to listen to them for the first time in twenty years.) The mastermind behind the band was vocalist Bob Geldof, who was quite the social activist and went on to organize the big Live Aid benefit among other events. One of our heroes in Apocalypse Cow is Geldof, the socially awkward, eczema-riddled son of a socially active (read: fanatical) woman who named her only child after her hero Bob Geldof. Of course, Geldof is quite embarrassed by his name--and his mum--and is relieved when the bullies in his school call him Gandalf.

So that gives you a feel for what I think is a quite brilliant satire of the zombie craze. There are layers of in-jokes that, if you don't get them, still leave plenty on top to make you laugh. I mean, there's something about slobbering, revenge-seeking undead bovines that sets me off.

Admittedly, this book is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. You probably know whether or not you enjoy well-done satire. Apocalypse Cow is irreverent. It's over-the-top outrageous. No one is safe, from football fans to the president of France. People behave badly. There's some blood and gore and, okay, the bulls get a little smexy with some of their victims. (See what I mean by over the top?) But it was a fun, fun read that had me literally laughing out loud at least once every couple of pages as our unlikely heroes seem to be the only ones capable of stopping the Moo-ving apocalypse.

Want to win an ARC of Apocalypse Cow? Just leave a comment and tell me what YOU think of zombies. Have you read any of the recent rash of zombie fiction? Does zombie romance kind of give you the heebie-jeebies?