Hunter by Night release day!

By Elisabeth Giveaways Paranormal Romance June 3, 2014 24 comments

I’m so relieved and excited about Hunter by Night’s release I could ugly-cry. I think release is a good word, because you put so much work into writing, re-writing, and then editing and polishing a book before it finally gets out in the world, that to finally see it in the light of day does take a huge weight off.

It’s a big deal, and it’s something worth of celebration. This particular book is special to me, because Lee and Alexia have been waiting so long for their HEA, and because I’m wrapping up a series I love so much. So I wanted to do an extra awesome prize giveaway, something to celebrate past, present, and future.

Past: I stopped reading romance for a long time. When I started again, I was drawn to vampires, and it was Lara Adrian and JR Ward that made me fall in love with romance again. So much that I didn’t want to read it, but write my own.

Present: The Chronicles of Yavn and Hunter by Night would be my present. That probably goes without saying. 🙂

Future: There’s a lot of talk about paranormal being dead. About vampires being dead. Well I’m hear to tell you the genre is alive and well and as hot as ever. So long as authors keep putting new twists on the mythology there will be readers to soak up the books. Also, while I was writing vampires I wan’t reading vampires. Now I can again. I recently picked up fellow Paranormal Unbounder Amber Belldene’s Blood Vine, and totally fell in love with the intelligent writing and rich worldbuilding.

In celebration of Hunter by Night’s release, I want to share these things with you.

Discover a New Love! Live #Chat and Awesome #Giveaway!

By Elisabeth General Paranormal Romance June 12, 2012 0 comments

Hey guys! Sourcebooks has launched a really groovy new digital book club called Discover a New Love, and King of Darkness is one of the featured books for June! To celebrate I will be hosting a chat at 7pm central (I think that’s 8pm EST, yes?) on Thursday June 14th. Stop by and pow-w0w for a chance to win a free 6 month membership to this awesome new digital book club (you get one free book a month for the 6 months with that, folks!), one of two free copies of King of Darkness, or a signed King of Darkness tote bag filled with a Prince of Prince T-shirt and other cool prizes! Find out more and check out previous author chats at http://www.discoveranewlove.com/parties/

Why do YOU love #vampire romance?

By Elisabeth Guest Blogs Paranormal Romance May 18, 2012 50 comments

AAAAND today I’m hosting Day 5 of our Vampire Author blog hop!! One lucky commenter anywhere in the world will receive their choice of eBook or signed paperback copy of King of Darkness. And be sure to visit all the other blogs on the hop this week to check out the fun answers and to enter for more chances to win the grand prize of an Amazon gift card, also! Now…

Why do YOU love vampire romance?

They drink blood. They walk the night. They live forever. Their fangs sink into your flesh… But which of these is the reason you most love vampire romance? Six vampire romance authors tell you exactly about vampires what makes their blood run hot and why they think vampires are here to stay…

Caridad Piñeiro: I love the fact that vampires, whether male or female, are dark, powerful, sexy and tortured. I especially love the tortured part. I really enjoy getting into their heads to find out what they like and don’t like about being vampires. I also love finding out how they became “undead” and how that has affected their vision of both themselves and humanity. Finally, it’s always fun to explore what they do with the powers they have as vampires. Will they use them for good or evil? Find happiness somehow or continue with living a lonely existence? Anything is possible with vampires and that’s what makes them so interesting.

Elisabeth Staab: As long as I can recall I’ve had a thing for the tortured bad boy. Vampires carry a forbidden element and a mystique that helps enhance their sexiness. They’re dangerous, but what if they show us so much more? The idea that there is one true love in the world for you, and that your bond with them can go beyond the emotional to something physical and primal…even mystical, is intensely romantic. In a nutshell this is how Thad in King of Darkness, and the prophecy that lead him to his queen came to be. The growling, the fierce emotions, the enhanced physical capabilities and the fangs…the list goes on. For those of us who really love them, it can be like an addiction.

Joyee Flynn: For me it’s partly the tall, dark, and handsome as a single woman… Ever since I picked up my first vampire book The Vampire Diaries in grammar school. The other part is that they own who they are and make no apologies for it. I’m a big fan of honesty and like Eric in True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse books, I’m drawn the confidence he exudes. Sure, he can be a little egotistical, but with all the power he has, centuries of experience… How could he not? But he is who he is while having the mystery of vampires that we’re all drawn to. Vampires aren’t going out of style because it gives us hope that maybe there’s more out there than we know. And I find that people are inquisitive and want to know more. We live for the answers to: What don’t we know? What hides from us in the dark?

Laura Kaye: Since my teenage reading of Anne Rice’s vampire books, I’ve been hooked on vampires! They’re my first love as a reader and a writer. And what do I most love about them? I love their power, which truly makes them the ultimate sexy bad ass. I love their animalistic natures, that they can’t help but want and need to wrap themselves around you, sink their fangs into your skin, and take you. I also love the idea of the loneliness of immortality, and how that makes them tortured and sympathetic, despite their darkness. And if these are the things you love about vampires too, check on my June 1 release, Seduced by the Vampire King, book 2 in my Vampire Warrior Kings series. Woot!

Lisa Kessler: When I wrote Night Walker, I loved imagining that this powerful being who could have anyone, chose my heroine. And instead of killing her, he loves and protects her. I also think as a reader, there is something innately sexy about about the blood drinking. A need and yearning for someone so deep and powerful that their life becomes yours. Usually sex is the closest you can get to another person physically, but vampires can take that one step further with a blood exchange. As long as readers thirst for vampires, I think authors will keep coming up with new twists to bring everyone back for more… 🙂

Laurie London: What I love about the vampire mythos is that they’re dark, mysterious, seductive, dangerous and powerful. When a vampire falls in love with you, it borders on obsession. It’s the fantasy that someone loves you so much that they will do anything to have you. They go against all their laws, all their sensibilities, even what their head is telling them, because they love you so desperately, but if they’re not careful, they could kill you. They not only need your blood to survive but they need your love to really live. This is what happens in Tempted By Blood, the third book in the Sweetblood series. When Jackson meets Arianna, she fills a deep void in his tortured life. She’s the one woman who understands him, who makes him feel as if he’s worthy and capable of great things, and that’s what he’s craved forever.

About the Authors

Joyee Flynn dreams of one day living on enough land to have a few horses, and find a couple of cowboys or pool boys of her own. She loves to get lost in fantasy that only books can bring. Her wide interest in reading is reflected in her writings, whether short stories, romance, or mystical.

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Laura Kaye is the bestselling and award-winning author of over a half-dozen books in paranormal, contemporary and erotic romance. Her debut novel Forever Freed is a 2012 Booksellers’ Best Double Finalist for Best Paranormal and Best First Novel, and won the NJRW Golden Leaf Award for Best Paranormal of 2011.

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Lisa Kessler loves to make up stories. Her work has been featured in print anthologies, and her vampire story “Immortal Beloved” was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award. She was also a finalist in RT Book Review magazine’s “Writing with the Stars” contest. Her debut novel, Night Walker is a Bookseller’s Best Double Finalist for Best Paranormal and Best First Novel.

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Laurie London is the award-winning author of the Sweetblood series. The hotly-anticipated third book, TEMPTED BY BLOOD, is available now, and the fourth book, SEDUCED BY BLOOD, comes out in late July.

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Caridad Pineiro is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and RITA® Finalist. Caridad is the author of over thirty published novels and novellas. Caridad’s latest paranormal romance release is THE CLAIMED, the second book in the Sin Hunter series. For more information, please visit www.caridad.com.

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Elisabeth Staab still lives with her nose in a book and at least one foot in a fantasy world. Her bestselling paranormal romance novel, King of Darkness, is available now. Her second book, Prince of Power, releases in January.

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Giveaway!

Wanna talk vampires? Wanna win vampires?? Follow along the Vampire Romance To Die For Tour all week for both!

Here’s the schedule:

5/14 Caridad Pineiro

5/15 Lisa Kessler

5/16 Joyee Flynn

5/17 Laura Kaye

5/18 Elisabeth Staab

5/19 Laurie London

Here’s what you can win:

1) A grand tour-wide prize of a $60 amazon or B&N gift card!

2) Each day’s blog hostess will give away one book of a vampire romance to a commenter at their blog

What are the rules?:

1) You must comment to enter to win with your email address. Blog follows are appreciated but not required

2) Contest is open until midnight EST Monday, May 21

3) Winners will be announced on May 22

4) Open to international

5) Winners to be picked using random.org

6) Participating authors not responsible for biting, blood loss, or swooning-related accidents

King of Darkness

By Elisabeth Paranormal Romance December 5, 2011 2 comments

I have been so remiss in blogging it is downright embarrassing. I could make excuses and whatnot, but the bottom line is that I get pretty easily overwhelmed these days. But here to please you, I have cover art! And a blurb! And an excerpt! I SO hope it pings on your happy places. King of Darkness releases Feb 1 2012 from Sourcebooks Casablanca for your vampire romance pleasure. It is available NOW for preorder from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Oh, and don’t forget to put it on your TBR list on Goodreads. 😉

Blurb:

ETERNAL COMMITMENT IS NOT ON HER AGENDA…

Scorned by the vampire community for her lack of power, Isabel Anthony lives a carefree existence masquerading as human—although, drifting among the debauched human nightlife, she prefers the patrons’ blood to other indulgences. But when she meets the king of vampires this party girl’s life turns dark and dangerous.

BUT TIME’S RUNNING OUT FOR THE KING OF VAMPIRES…

Dead-set on finding the prophesied mate who will unlock his fiery powers, Thad Morgan must find his queen before their race is destroyed. Their enemies are gaining ground, and Thad needs his powers to unite his subjects. But when his search leads him to the defiant Isabel, he wonders if fate has gotten it seriously wrong…

Excerpt:

“Jesus, T. What is this place?”

Thad Morgan scanned the sparse industrial interior of the massive warehouse turned dance club. From just inside the doorway, he passed his preternatural vision over the writhing crowd of humans. Most of the populace bounced in time to bass-heavy techno music, stopping only to grope their nearest neighbor. Some gazed upward in awe at a raised platform of fire-eaters, and still more worshipped at a DJ stand opposite the entrance as if it were an altar. A scrolling sign overhead announced something called the Crystal Method. The humans partied with abandon and apparently little regard for their eardrums.

“I think they call it a rave,” Thad murmured to his friend.

And apparently at 3:00 a.m., the night was still young for the party kids in Orlando.

Thad’s hands clenched and released. How were they going to do this? The club was friggin’ huge and packed to the gills, from the crowded floor full of scantily clad dancers with glow sticks to the teeming balconies where couples and even groups were involved in more intimate acts such as massage and… whatnot. It was hard to fathom how in the hell they were going to find the female they were looking for in this place.

Already overheated, Thad pushed up the sleeves of his leather jacket and fingered the scar on his forearm, tracing slowly over the two intersecting lines that flaredinto a Y at each end, like a crude Armenian cross. The

small patch of skin was even hotter than the rest of him

and throbbed in time with the pounding electronic music

that was drilling a hole in his skull. He could almost

swear the scar was glowing, but the haze of laser lights

and cigarette smoke made it tough to be certain.

“She’s in here, Lee. I can feel it,” he said tightly.

Once again, King of Darkness releases 2/1/2012 from Sourcebooks. The paperback can be ordered now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble (You can even preorder on Kindle and Nook and I THINK it will automatically download on the release date!!). And to everyone who’s already contacted me to tell me how psyched they are about the book, thanks so much! Y’all rock my world.

And if you would like to be kept in the loop on future goings on, I would love for you to join me on on Facebook and Twitter.

My lesson in “$h**t happens.”

By Elisabeth Author Advice General July 31, 2011 2 comments

So I’m still pretty behind the ball these days, but I wanted to take a moment to stress a point that was stressed to me before I got my first writing contract: prepare as much as you possibly can, because once you have deadlines, sh**t WILL go wrong to keep you from meeting them.

All the seasoned writers who gave me that warning? You folks were right. Boy, were you ever.

Because even though people told me–lots of people–I didn’t quite grasp it. So here’s the deal. KING of DARKNESS comes out in mass-market paperback in February and I am super-mega thrilled, but there’s been a lot of hurry up and wait in the process. All the way back in January of 2011 I signed the contract with Sourcebooks, and it wasn’t until…I want to say late May that I finally had a lovely talk with my editor (Deb Werksman, who I just LOVE) and she told me very nicely that she felt I needed to re-conceptualize a fairly juicy chunk of the novel. Ideally, in about 3 weeks.

Yikes.

But, “Okay, no sweat,” I said. It seemed tight, but doable. I am the at-home parent to 3 kids, but those kids were in preschool part-time, and hubby would help if he could on the weekends. We had a sitter who came a few hours a week. So we’d work it out. Well, then our air conditioning died, so for a week I got nothing done because it was too hot to stay in the house, and the kids couldn’t sleep. Then, the preschool was closed for a school holiday. The babysitter got food poisoning, so there went my childcare help during the weekdays for awhile. Hubby had some work issues that ate up the weekends. Ugh! Oh, yeah, and I was rear-ended by a Lexus SUV while driving my friend’s Honda Civic and then sitting to type was painful due to getting banged up in the fender-bender. I mean–seriously?? If it could go wrong in those three weeks, it did.

But I did make my deadline. Not easily, and not without losing a lot of sleep. Not without swallowing a lot of ibuprofen. But I searched every nook and cranny I could for people who could help me watch the kids, and when my babysitter was back on her feet after my manuscript was in, I paid her to come watch my kids so I could SLEEP. I thanked my lucky stars that Amazon delivered coffee straight to my door. A LOT of coffee.

And I prayed that I could still deliver a good book, despite all the insanity.

So what else could I have done, in retrospect? I would have lined up some backup babysitters, for one thing. Maybe asked the preschool if they had any extra enrollment days once I knew what the deadline was going to be. There might not have been much, but there *were* things in retrospect that I could have done to be more proactive. Ah. Well.

So…planning, folks. It’ll save ya a lot of anguish.

I’ll know for next time. Though God willing it’s not another car accident. Or the central air.

Please.