Who won?!

I have lots of winners to announce today so lets get started!

My Charlaine harris SIGNED goodies giveaway has SIX winners!

First and second winners will receive a signed copy of  one of Charlaine's books.

Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream by: Caddy Rowland + GIVEAWAY

Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream

By: Caddy Rowland

Publisher: Caddy Rowland

First Printing: August 2011

Buy it at: Amazon or Barnes and Noble

Source: Paper bound copy provided by author

Enter to win a paper bound copy for this book immediately following my review :)

Book fact for the Week

The first book to ever sell over a million copies was Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.

Now I am embarrassed to say that I have not read this one yet. I have seen the movie though ;)

Guest Post by Author Emlyn Chand

This is a guest post by Emlyn Chand, author of Farsighted

When did you have enough confidence in your abilities to officially call yourself a writer?

For me, it was when I first received money for my work as a freelance columnist. For you, it may have been when you finished the first chapter of your first novel or won a prize for a short story. Maybe you never had any qualms about saddling yourself with this label. Maybe you still don’t consider yourself a “real writer.”

Morrigan Michele Guest Post

Hi everyone, I am Morrigan Michele- one of the authors of the Blood and Magick Series. As many of you all know, Betrayed-Blood and Magick Book 1 just released October 1st and we couldn't be more excited! What I really wanted to do today, though, is let you all in on some things you might not know about my sister, Misty, and myself. Misty has always been an avid reader. Her favorite genre is paranormal fantasy, but she has been known to read some paranormal romance from time to time. I, on the other hand, didn't start really reading until I was into my 20's. It wasn't that I didn't like to read, but more that I hadn't found anything that caught and kept my interest. I suppose I can blame that fact on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I was in highschool when I began reading them, and after that nothing could compare; that is until Misty introduced me to Christine Feehan's Drake Sisters Series. After that, Misty and I were our own little book club. We would take turns buying books and discussing them. That is how we got the idea to write a book of our own.

Zompacolypse 2011

I am participating in Zompacolypse 2011. A giveaway hop hosted by Paranormal Wastelands. This hop will run from Oct. 28-31st. My winner will be chosen on Nov. 1st. You are entering to win one of the following prizes:

Monster Mash and Bash

I am participating in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop hosted by     

 A Book Lover's Drean.
This hop will run from Oct. 26th - 31st and my winners will be chosen on Nov. 1st. You will be entering to win one of the following prizes: 

Angel Killer by: H. David Blalock

For Immediate Release
October 25, 2011
H. David Blalock's Angelkiller Unleashes New Urban Fantasy Series With Limited Edition Hardcover Offer

Seventh Star Press proudly unveils the cover art and pre-order windows for the limited hardcover and softcover editions of Angelkiller, book one of a provacative new urban fantasy series by H. David Blalock.

With only 75 limited edition hardcovers to be issued, Angelkiller continues the Seventh Star Press tradition of producing one of the best value limited hardcover editions available anywhere. The limited edition hardcover edition includes an exclusive illustration not found in any other version. The artist for the book and series is Matthew Perry, whose artwork can be found in other Seventh Star Press titles from Jackie Gamber, Steven Shrewsbury, Michael West, and Stephen Zimmer.

(two interior images from Angelkiller. Artwork by Matthew Perry)

Corruption by: Lauren K. Pomeroy

Corruption

By: Lauren K. Pomeroy

Publisher: Lauren K. Pomeroy

Release Date:June, 2011

Buy it at: Amazon 

Source: PDF copy from Author

 

 

 

 

 About the book: ...Seeing her inside the window, he feels a sense of comfort and begins to walk toward the house. Feeling the breeze at his back again, he turns to see knights upon horses stampeding towards him, as if he were invisible. Whirling around as they gallop past him with torches and weapons, he watches as the soldiers invade his home. "No!" he shouts silently, hearing nothing immerse from inside his throat. The sounds of murder break over the wind as she moans and screams to the high heavens and is locked inside, while the remaining soldiers light his house in a wreath of flames. Suddenly, the world he's surrounded in slowly turns black, while the roar of the fire and her screams echo inside his mind...

After the horrific murder of his wife, the framing of his personality deemed insane, and the imprisonment that left a scar on the face of the people, Hadrian is now part of a plot to wreak havoc on those who took away the love of his life, help regain the throne and the council to the exiled Prince Moroven, and give freedom to those who’ve been stripped of it in the name of his wife, Emeline.

Say Not What If by Andrew Friedman

Say Not What If

By: Andrew Friedman

Buy it at: Amazon or Create Space

Source: Review copy from author

Book Fact for the week

Did you know that books used to be shelved "backwards" with the spine facing the back of the shelf and the fore-edge facing out?

How weird is that? I mean really? You have to go through the entire shelf to find what you want that way! LOL

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

I am participating in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop hosted by     

 I Am A Reader Not a Writer.
This hop will run from Oct. 24th - 31st and my winners will be chosen on Nov. 1st. You will be entering to win one of the following prizes: 

Winner of Mine Until Dawn Ebook

Congratulations Kristen! I will send your email address to the author and your book will come directly from her! I hope you enjoy it!

The first book in this series is Slow Burn and if you haven't read it, you can find it HERE in ebook format for only $0.99! Or you can get it in paperback HERE  for $12.99!

Charlaine Harris Interview and Giveaway!

First of all I would like to say, Thank you to the incredibly talented Charlaine Harris for taking time out of her hectic schedule to answer a few questions for me! I was THRILLED when I got the email back saying that she agreed to do this for me! I literally squealed! I absolutely LOVE the Sookie Stackhouse Series  as well as the well known TV show True Blood that is based on these novels.

I hope you all enjoy the interview! Don't forget to enter the giveaway as well!

GRACEN MILLER ~ GUEST AUTHOR

Pandora's Box has received 21 FIVE star ratings on Goodreads!!

Where does the road to Hell begin?

Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

Angel Burn

By: L.A. Weatherly

Publisher: Candlewick

Release Date: May 24, 2011

Buy it at Amazon or Books A Million

Source:Purchased from Amazon

Random Book Fact

In the book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is one sentence that is 823 words long. When Vic wrote to his editor inquiring about their opinion of the manuscript, he wrote, "?" They answered, "!"

Can you imagine? OMG! Talk about a run-on!

Mine Until Dawn by: E.B. Walters + GIVEAWAY

Mine Until Dawn

2nd Book in the intriguing Fitzgerald Family Series

By: Ednah (E. B.) Walters

Publisher: Firetrail Publishing

Release Date: June 29, 2011

Buy it at Amazon or IndieBound

Source:Kindle edition provided by Author

*Enter to win an ecopy of Mine Until Dawn following my review*

Blood Bound by: Aine P. Massie

I am very pleased to be a part of the Blood's Voice, Blood Bound book tour hosted by Geas Publishing. I have had the pleasure of reading both books and absolutely loving them both. I hope you enjoy my review.

Author Interview with Jeanne Bannon

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing an intriguing author. I will be reviewing my copy of Invisible soon and I can't wait! It looks to be such an amazing book and Jeanne is an amazing person! She has truly been nothing short of incredible over the last couple of weeks. She was very patient with me while I was sick and she has done everything in her power to work with me and make things run smoothly for this interview and for the review coming up. Thank you Jeanne for being such a great person.

I hope you all enjoy the interview!

Hop For Red October Winner

First of all I would like to thank Fangs, Wands, and Fairydust for hosting this wonderful hop. You can visit them on their blog for some amazing reviews, giveaways and more!  

Guest post by Author Andy Holloman

This is a guest post provided by Author Andy Holloman. I hope that you all enjoy it! Make sure you leave a comment and show Andy some love! Remember that suprise giveaway winners are chosen from comments so even if the post doesn't offer a giveaway there MAY be one!


Discovering the Differences in Social Media Sites - Any one that is embarking on the path of publishing a novel will be inundated with well meaning advice regarding the importance of using social media to promote, market, sell, etc. So, after receiving said advice, I embarked on this path six months ago. Now, like many folks, I had joined the Facebook revolution a while back (for me, back in 2009) and left after a few months of not finding much value. (This was prior to having any inkling that my novel was going to be published.) I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable FB was when I began to really treat it as a social "place" and started to reach out to folks that I had not seen in many years, or even those folks that I saw fairly regularly. It opened up a "window" that allowed me to interact with people in a way that would not have existed without FB. I was gaining "friends" and I was gleaning information about folks that I would NEVER have received without FB.

The other social media site that writers are frequently directed to is Twitter. Likewise, I had "twitted" around with the site but had dropped out. In June of 2011, I dove back into the Twitter world and started to learn why folks found the site addictive. Twitter opened up a much different world of connections for me than Facebook. On Twitter, I directed my attention to following and connecting with writers, editors, publishers, etc. and - lo and behold - I was making friends with semi-famous folks! I could send them a quick question and they would respond. WOW! Twitter truly is unique (in my experience) in regards to how you can interact with people you admire. Furthermore, my twitter universe is MUCH more international as compared to FB. I have become friends with people all over the world and I have learned things about writers AND readers in other parts of the world. In the past few weeks, I find myself drawn more to Twitter than FB because, dare I say it, Twitter is more fun!
Imagine that. Social Media can be fun. Just remember - Be social first in order to get the most out of these sites. Going to heavy on the selling/promoting side will make your friends and followers "tune you out" which total defeats the purpose.

Andy Holloman, Novelist, www.NovelistAndyHolloman.wordpress.com

Random Fact for the Week :)

In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-seven years to complete.

WOW 27 years!? But is the dictionary ever REALLY complete? I mean don't they add new words to it all the time? I know "ain't" wans't in the dictionary when I was a kid, but it is now!

Guest Post from Author Monique O'Connor James

The Road to Jamais Vu

I thought I’d share a little about the back ground of Jamais Vu and how it came to be.  The most frequently asked question I get is, how did you come up with the idea for your story? Every story has its own history and its own path to publication.

The Keepers was a very personal story for me.  It was the first thing I wrote after my mom died and thereby has a lot of autobiographical “stuff” in it.  I was at that time dealing with grief, and writing the book helped me to put aside some of the pain I was feeling. 

At this point I wasn’t even thinking about getting published.  You have to realize I wrote seven complete manuscripts in three years, before I decided I really wanted to put my work out there.  Jamais Vu didn’t come to me in a dream, or from my own experience, but the plot came from something very real that happened to my mother when I was just a baby.

Hop For Red October

 

I am participating in the Hop For Red October! This giveaway hop was organized by Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust.

This Giveaway will be open to entries from October 7th until October 10th at Midnight and is INTERNATIONAL!

WINNER WINNER WINNER

Ok so I'm sure you all remember the review I did on "The Pineville Heist" a while back. There was a giveaway posted with the review!  Well...I have chosen the winner for that giveaway!

 I have NOT received the books from the author yet (they were scheduled to ship today) but as soon as I get them I will mail you yours along with your raffle ticket!

*Find explanation for the raffle tickets by clicking the "Raffle Tickets" tab at the top of the page*

Please respond to my email with your mailing address no later than Friday 10/7/11 to claim your prize.

Random book fact for the week ;)

The origin of the Latin word for book, liber, comes from the Romans who used the thin layer found between the bark and the wood (the liber) before the times of parchment. The English word comes from the Danish word for book, bog, meaning birch tree, as the early people of Denmark wrote on birch bark.

Sketchy Postal Service

I received an envelope in the mail Saturday from an author. It was sent to me via media mail (which I don't recommend for sending ANYTHING) but still!

Disrupted Lives by: Brenda Youngerman

Synopsis: A name does not make a person, a person makes a name.
Such is the theme of Disrupted Lives, the story of how one adopted child touches and intersects with many lives, but ends up destroying one family name, while building another family's legacy.
Darren and Amelia Kane were high school sweethearts torn apart by war. They reunite and discover that they both must put their nightmares behind them to build a life together. Betrayed by her parents, Amelia was earlier forced to give up their child.
Fiona Porter and Sterling Lake are thrown together as part of a business proposition. They end up surprising both their families by enriching the Lake empire and family name. The Lakes become synonymous with society, power and money, and their children must carry that torch forward at all cost. When an adopted grandchild is brought into the family, he questions the definition of "family."

Review: I loved this story. It is very heart wrenching and I have to admit it was hard to hold back the tears at times but it was totally worth it! Brenda did a wonderful job intertwining the two families over the three generations covered in this story. She also showed how money and power are not the key to happiness. My favorite line in the book is "A name does not make a person, a person makes a name." I beleive that Ben Lake's character proved this line true in more ways than one.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

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Yes, I know it's only October, but I want everyone to have PLENTY of time to sign up for the FIRST annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop Hosted by: Intoxicated By Books aka IBB!

It is very simple to participate. All you need to do is:

• host a giveaway on YOUR blog during the time of the hop
• Grab the HOP badge(above) and add it to your side panel (make sure it is heading your giveaway post as well to make it easy to find)
• add your link to the linky below
• prizes MUST be book related, you are responsible for providing the prize(s), and shipping them to the winner(s) on from your blog. There are no price limitations. Be creative and make this fun!
• Your giveaway post MUST be up as early as possible on December 13 and your winner should be announced no later than midnight on December 25th
• NO MORE ENTRIES AFTER DEC 10TH!

If you can't get the Linky to work PLEASE let me know! It should work just fine but...if not don't give up! Email me at christina.irelan@gmail.com or comment under this post leaving your link and I will add you in!