Interested in what’s coming next in the Chronicles of Yavn series? I was interviewed intensely today at Novels on the Run, and they pulled all sorts of information out of me from the title of book three and who the next pairing will be after Prince of Power to a few sneak peaks of the playlist! Stop by and say hello!
Sometimes when you’re an aspiring writer, or really when you’re about to try anything new, the journey you’re about to begin seems so huge. Remember the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sometimes you don’t know how you’re going to get there, you just have move forward. When I started King of Darkness I had a sleeping newborn in my lap, and I was typing “Chapter 1” one-handed. I’d never written a novel. Prince of Power released yesterday! The reviews are fabulous. I am so grateful.
If you have read either King of Darkness or Prince of Power and enjoyed it enough to take the time to leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, etc, I would be so appreciative. The feedback means so much to us authors.
Thank you to everyone for your support! Meanwhile, Tes Hilaire and I are at Coffee and Porn today sharing excerpts from both our series for the Wednesday whine and wine. Stop by and get your whine and hottness on! And come back on Friday when we’ll be doing a great giveaway of our latest releases.
Deal alert! My debut novel, King of Darkness, is currently on sale in ebook at B&N, Amazon, Kobo Books, and iTunes for only $1.99! And if you’re a member of the Discover a New Love digital book club you can grab King of Darkness right now for only $1.49!
Sooo! Books Make Me Happy Reviews (Host of the Olde City New Blood Paranormal Con–registration ends soon, will I see you at the ghost tour?) is doing an Out of The Box Reading Challenge for 2013!!
I rarely do reading challenges because as it’s just hard to find time to read, and I tend to read in fits and starts. I may read nothing for months and then spend the week in bed with the flu, blasting my way through a dozen books. My time is limited, but really, the best thing for an author is to read outside of our comfort zone, it’s a great way for our craft to grow. We absorb new technique, structure, and language by reading a variety of authors. So imma try. Who knows? You can get more info (and how to enter to win the big box o’ prizes) on the Books Make Me Happy Blog, but here’s the quicky category list.
February – On the Island – Tracey Garvis GravesThere we go! What do you think you’re going to read? Think you can go the distance? Can I? Any of my readers who finish the challenge, email me at the end of the year, there’ll be something fun from me in it for ya.
…but sometimes you just don’t know what else to say. I wrote King of Darkness kind of as a challenge to myself. A “let’s see if I can” thing, something that I would do while my kids were napping. One day I realized it had become a career and a monster and something I need to do for my sanity, to breathe, and when will the kids be in school so I can write more, and so on.
Now, as hot as the fire burns inside to write more (my friend Amy calls that drive her writing dragon, which always strikes me as appropriate. I kept getting dragon tattoos when I was younger, I always wondered what that obsession was–I didn’t realize back then that they were writing dragons), the tragedy that just happened in Connecticut has tempered my desire to rush my oldest “baby” off to Kindergarten and start that new series I’d been burning to dive into. Yesterday my son was having a rough morning, so instead of taking him to preschool we drew pictures and baked Christmas cookies together all morning. He didn’t practice his alphabet and I’m a day behind on my writing/blogging/pimping schedule. We’ll all be okay. Balancing parenting and writing is harder than I realized. Being an author at all is harder than I anticipated. Every day is a learning experience. Still, I love to write, I love my readers, and I’m so, so grateful.
King of Darkness was literally the first novel I wrote. I wrote essays and poems and short stories here and there my whole life, but a 90,000 word novel? 352 pages, balls out, 
many story arcs, many points of view and voices and whatnot? King of Darkness was almost like one of my babies. I started writing it just after my youngest was born, and talk about a challenge. A challenge I knew may never see the light of day. That it did, that it sold, that people liked it…It’s just so awesome. And I have been so flattered to have multiple readers/bloggers list is among their favorite books of 2012, and Prince of Power, one of their most anticipated books of 2013. Awesome. So, so awesome. Thanks you guys.
Lee Goram, the King’s human-hating first in command
To have that first try, that book that I sometimes wrote while typing one-handed with a sleeping newborn in my lap, recognized by a well-respected site like GraveTells, is another huge honor. I’ve been nominated in their 2012 Readers Choice Awards for Most Promising New Author, Most Engaging Author, and King of Darkness has been nominated for Best Cover Art (by artist Jodie Welter, who ROCKS) and everyone’s favorite BAMF, Lee, has been nominated for Most Memorable Sidekick (I’m working on his book right now btw). So voting begins Friday, 12/21,and regardless of who you vote for, I hope you vote, because we authors all appreciate the support. And many congrats to my fellow nominees, I am honored to be in truly great company. Thank you to everyone for the continued awesomeness. I’ll come up with a better words soon. Promise.
Meanwhile, you can go here to vote until 12/28.
Happy holidays,
Elisabeth
Happy holidays to all of you, and a joyous coming new year! I hope you’re all prepared with boozy hot chocolate to drink and good books to snuggle up with. To help that along, I am here to tell you that there are some awesome, awesome end of the year book giveaways afoot: