Samhain Publishing

I'm thrilled to announce my latest release from Samhain: ONE THOUSAND KISSES.

This book has been a much longer time in coming than I would have liked. Kids, other books, career changes, all sorts of things conspired to try to ensure Embor and Ani, the romantic protagonists of OTK, never got to kiss on the mouth. And other stuff.

OTK is the sequel to my 2008 Samhain release, SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST. In writing OTK, I realize I've created my first series — The Fey Realm. So exciting! Seems like everyone had a series out and now so do I. Technically, for those who love series, my leprechaun novella LIAM'S GOLD kinda sorta takes place in the same general world as my Fey books, but it exists unto itself.

So let me tell you a little more about ONE THOUSAND KISSES (on the mouth–and other stuff).

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But always thought they were over too soon?

Have I got a book for you! My first novel, A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH, is being released in print from Samhain on November 25, and I’ll be chatting at the Samhain Café as much as my children allow me to that day. I’ll be giving away a copy of SFS in ebook format. But speaking of my children, who are out of school on Thanksgiving vacation this week, my 6 year old is a budding video artist.

Don’t believe me? Check out this cool video she helped me make for SFS:

I hope to see everyone at the Cafe on Wednesday, and until then, dream of turkey and fairies

Jody W.
www.jodywallace.com

As a typical writer—introverted, a little obsessive, not particularly schmoozy—promotion of my books and myself an author is daunting. I mean, that’s like SALES. Did I sign up for a sales job when I decided to put finger to keyboard and share my stories with readers? Because I would sooner mow my own yard than have a job as an official salesperson. Talk about an area where I have zero talent! Yeah, I had to “sell” my books to an agent and publisher, but now it turns out I have to sell my books and myself to readers in order to supplement my publisher’s efforts on my behalf.

Yeah, I pretty much stink at this part of the job, the promotion and marketing. I try to take it in segments. The basics: a website. I just redesigned mine so it’s all fancy. Then, a blog. I share with the cat in order to add a little pizzazz. Then you have blog hopping, social networking sites, chats and loops…. You have booksignings, paid ads, bookstore visits and mailings, articles in writerly and readerly publications….seems like it’s never-ending!

There are also author giveaways. Contests. Let’s talk about this particular segment today. I’d like to ask you guys a few questions about the “giveaway” or “contest” part of author promotion. Most giveaways I’ve seen involve free books (duh!), bookstore gift certificates, spa-type items and/or chocolate (duh!). Keeping in mind airline tickets and island vacations aren’t in the budget, what types of things do you like to try to win from authors? Are books enough? Do you like backlist or only new releases? Paper or plastic? What extras do you appreciate? What cool stuff have you seen? I have been doing hand-made reusable gift bags for all my giveaways, and all sorts of stuff just jumps into the bag, I swear.

If you are an author, feel free to tell us about your contest! If you’re a reader (oh, heck, we’re ALL readers), tell us what you’d like to win—or even what you have zero interest in winning and what you consider a waste of postage.

Right now I have a contest to win a gnome prize package to celebrate today’s release of Survival of the Fairest from Samhain. It’s a paranormal romance featuring recalcitrant fairy princesses, sexy magicians, misuse of magic, cross dressers, dangerous gnomes and Area 51, all against the already-strange backdrop of Las Vegas. I’ve been exposing the truth about gnomes at my blog, too, if you like crazy pictures, snark and humor: blog.jodywallace.com

Now it’s your turn. Tell me what makes an author’s contest stand out for you!

Jody W.
www.jodywallace.com
SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST—Available now, Samhain Publishing

I’ve been participating in a hilarious round robin at a group blog called the Manuscript Mavens this week, and I wanted to tell everyone about a side benefit I’ve experienced. A burst of creativity!

The premise of the Mavens’ project is that each author writes a ~1000 word episode that concludes with four choices, like the Choose Your Own Adventure novels popular in the 80’s and enjoying a bit of resurgence today. Authors whose turn it is have one, just one, evening to write an episode based on the most popular of the four selections as chosen by blog visitors, and it is posted the next morning, to the delight of all.

Each episode, I swear, gets better than the last. That’s a tough admission because my contribution was Awesomesauce, and I chimed in second. They’re on the eighth chapter as of the posting of this blog entry. It’s almost as if each participating author pushes the next one to greater heights of cleverness, continuity and charm. I haven’t quizzed the other authors, but quite frankly, I had no trouble at all coming up with my chapter (hopefully that doesn’t show) because of the fertile ground created by the mechanics of this project. Something about the constraints — the length, the time frame, the setting, the guidelines — had my fingers flying across the keys to put my own spin on things.

In fact, that creativity has bled over into some of my other projects, increasing my wordcounts and my enjoyment of the writing process. My kids aren’t too happy about the time I’ve been spending at the computer, but I hope my editor will be.

Another creativity-enhancing project I participated in last year was a (free!) anthology of short paranormal romances set in a fictional Vegas casino called DunVegas. Did I mention it’s free for you to download? Anyway, in this one, a group of Samhain’s authors brainstormed a setting and wrote coordinating stories that took place during a paranormally-themed convention in the hotel’s ballroom. Again, as with the Mavens’ round robin, the variety and quality in the stories was superb, considering the short time frame in which we all completed our contributions.

It might be that you’re a writer and you’re stuck on a project. Or it might be that you’re a reader and you’re caught in a slump of usual suspects. With both writing and reading, I think it can really spice things up when we try something completely new—but something that has boundaries, so we’re not just free-falling in a world of fiction. If you normally read erotic romance, dig up some young adult paranormals or atmospheric Southern fiction. If you normally write lengthy fairy tale romance novels (now who could that be?) how about some short fiction or branching story wackiness?

In other words, go out there and get yourself some strange!

For a list I’ve compiled of current branching story type novels, you can check out my blog

Jody W.
A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH—Available now from Samhain Publishing
http://www.jodywallace.com * http://meankittybox.blogspot.com

Like Gia and other authors who have new releases, sometimes it seems like I’ve been waiting for this day for years. With A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH, releasing today, that’s not entirely inaccurate.

When I started writing fiction with the intent to publish, the paranormal romance genre was dead. Not dead like a vampire, dead like the plants in my container garden three weeks after I planted them (why yes, I have a black thumb). Brown, lifeless, kind of crusty, with scant hints it used to be a green, growing thing. There was a surge of futuristic, time travel and angel romances in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s, but after that, the well mostly dried. In fantasy, despite the fact Hamilton’s Anita Blake series began in 1993, traditional epics with several huge books apiece dominated the landscape. While these often had romances in them, the books I longed to read—true fantasy romances—were rare birds.

But we all know that changed. First the Feehan (1999ish) and Kenyon (2001ish) vampire dynasties began, slowly changing the face of the romance genre to the paranormal and fantasy laden concoction we know today. Fantasy and science fiction included more and more urban fantasy and cross-genre stories, with the creation of publishers (like Samhain!) and lines expressly suited to that delicious combination.

The end result was that today, you can actually find what I’ve wanted to read all along: fantasy romances where romance is the focus, but the degree of worldbuilding and plot are closer to what you’d find in the fantasy genre. I thrive on the relationship details, the growing intimacy, and, yes, the sex, but I also love a fully realized fantasy setting and a narrative to match. That type of book is what I’ve tried to offer with A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH, based on the fairy tale “The 12 Dancing Princesses”.

Enjoy!

Jody Wallace
My Site * My Blog

I don’t know about you, but I’m a horrible packrat, and as I’ve aged, I’ve developed the volunteerism virus. Things have gotten tricky, so lately I’ve had this urge to streamline. With all the modern emphasis on feng shui and uncluttering your life, I’ve started to wonder if I’ve taken too much on, given myself too many choices every day, filled everything from the house to the car with too much stuff. In other words, I’ve started to worry I’ve got too much junk in all my trunks!

But I have changed my mind. It’s not so bad to have a cluttered life. To wit:

1) The big one is the fact that a recent health scare with my baby involved a sudden ICU stay for her and crazy times for the adults. Separated from our home of pack-rattiness, we still had the minivan and its wealth of useful items to see us through several nights before anyone had to make the trip to the house and away from the baby.

2) My sister was involved in the hospital adventure, cancelling an important buiness conference in order to be with the family. When the baby was released to recover at home, I convinced my sister to catch a flight to her conference anyway, even though she had a tiny window of opportunity and none of her things with her. I opened up the pack-ratted contents of my attics and closets to clothe and accessorize her. I also had ample travel-sized cosmetics and shampoos another more streamlined person may have used or discarded. And to think all the “Organize Your Life!” gurus insist you should send everything you don’t actively use to Goodwill! If I did that to my closet, for example, the only things left would be 9 pairs of yoga/sweat pants and 5 stained up T-shirts.

3) I belong to several groups and clubs, all of which place certain demands on my time. I had been considering eliminating one or two of them until I pulled from the resources of all the groups during the aforementioned health scare. One group’s members are bringing our family meals now that we’re home yet still crazed, one group’s members covered for me with some professional responsibilities, and one group’s members helped me find food and lodging near the hospital, as well as provided company during the times I wasn’t allowed to be with the baby. If I’d uncluttered my schedule and cut some of those groups, I wouldn’t have found help as easy to come by.

4) During Halloween, we did several activities (cluttered lifestyle!) and needed several costume changes of varying degrees of warmth. While we had not pre-purchased the necessary items for more than one set of family costumes, I have an entire army’s worth of vintage clothes and costumery in my rather frightening attic. Want to be a pumpkin fairy? No problem! The Scooby Gang? It’s all up there!

5) A friend who has an unbearably cluttered car, even worse than mine, unexpectedly ran out of the medication she takes every day. Instead of suffering withdrawel symptoms until her pharmacy cooperated, she found a lone pill in the floor of her car. Voila! Muss means less fuss!

6) Our minivan of pack-rattiness has saved us on other occasions when the kids (or adults) needed a change of clothes, something to eat, or something to read or play. Stuck in a traffic jam? Have I got a book for you! Hell, maybe even a portapotty. Whatever we needed was in there…somewhere (probably along with the rest of my friend’s missing prescription).

7) An opportunity to participate in a project along with the authors on the Samhain Paranormal blog sprang up in October. This op involved writing a story in a shared world called “Dunvegas.” Normally because of the rest of the clutter in my life (those darn sickly kids!), I find it challenging to produce fiction in a short space of time and on demand. However, because I had packratted away story ideas and the notes I’d written for a novel set in the same location as “Dunvegas”, I was able to play, and the results are just awesome….which you can see for free! Dunvegas PDF

When somebody else — often somebody in one of my groups or family — needs something, almost anything, I find it very satisfying to disappear into the attic and emerge victorious with the requested item or reasonable facsimile in hand. Be it a romance novel, a pair of authentic shoes from the 70’s or a baby carrier, I’m like the great white suburban hunter, only I don’t have to go to the mall, just upstairs.

9) Same goes with my computer files. I save everything. Email from 2001? I’ve got it. Links from the research I did on brown recluse spiders? Saved somewhere and backed up in triplicate.

10) Even this blog entry is the result of clutter. We’ve been in the hospital for the past I don’t know how long and didn’t get home until last night. But instead of cancelling on my appointed blog time, I clicked through some of my blog entry ideas and found one that I could apply to my current situation. It all started with the pill in my friend’s car, but my junk justificaiton was definitely compounded this week.

Junk, junk, junk. Bring it on!

Jody W.
A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH—Winter 2008, Samhain Publishing
www.jodywallace.com * meankittybox.blogspot.com

Obviously, everybody here is a dedicated reader. We love stories and characters, we love the out of body experience that comes with an absorbing setting and plot. Writing is wonderful, but reading — the desire to read a great book and be swept away into another world — is where it all begins.

However, reading is not a passive “stare at the words” experience! Based on some interviews and observations of people I know, reading can burn more calories than, say, watching television. Here’s a partial list:

Stacey grabs a piece of her hair and twirls it around her finger. By the end she’s got a single perfect ringlet.

Esther flips the top right corner of the pages. Flip, flip, flip.

Carrie used to crunch ice — she’d get glasses full just for that purpose. Now that she’s learned the tooth-chipping evils of ice-crunching, she rubs her feet together. Which have to be bare. If she settles in for a good coze, she says, the shoes come off.

Natalie can actually read while she’s on the treadmill (talk about active!), though I don’t believe that’s her preference.

Matthew either flexes the spine of the book subtly back and forth or rat-a-tats his fingers on the covers. This is when he isn’t sitting with one knee up and clenching and unclenching his toes.

I myself often hold a pen as I read and click the nib or the lid on and off. On my PDA, I nibble the stylus. When I read an ebook on the computer (and also when I’m writing), I have an absolutely fascinating tendency to highlight the same word on and off, on and off, clicking the mouse button repeatedly until it drives anyone near me insane.

Hey, they say annoying, I say fascinating! It’s visible evidence of the wheels spinning in my brain.

And then there’s my (weird) husband who holds the book in his lap, stares at the page and only moves to turn it. Earthquakes (and me fussing at him to take the baby because I need a BREAK, dammit) can barely budge him from the adventure playing in his head.

How do you read?

Jody Wallace
So much cyberspace, so little time!
www.jodywallace.com * meankittybox.blogspot.com