Blog Tour?

Many of you may know I'm terribly bad at putting myself forward. Those that know me personally find this hilarious as I'm rather gregarious and forthright in person... Some would say headstrong, blunt, bullish, bitchy even. However, when it comes to actually presenting myself and my work I seem to flounder.

I can talk your ear off in person, and have on occasion near accomplished this, but the initial contact is hard for me.

So, in the spirit of putting myself out there, I'm plotting out a blog tour for A Curse on the Mountain. It'll be my first official one, and I hope to make a full week of it, starting December 28th and ending January 3rd. This will mean a total of SEVEN blogs willing to host me.

I'm planning to give away eight prizes. One for each day and then one grand prize, as it were. Prizes will be things like, back list stories/books, ebooks, perhaps a gift card. The grand prize I know will be a commissioned piece of artwork, naming rights to a character in an upcoming book, a book and a signed book plate or vellum.

I'll try to work out all the wrinkles in the meantime, and if anyone is interested in hosting me, just hit my email!

Home Sweet Home Cover Reveal.

Here we are! It's the Home Sweet Home cover! It's a short story, but it was long enough for it's own cover! Which is just--awesome. The cover comes from the amazing Brandon Clay.

Blurb:

Kis returns to Columbus on the heels of a bad break-up. Unfortunately for Kis, his boyfriend isn’t ready to give him up—vampires aren’t easy to say no to. With the help of Julius, an old friend, Kis is hopeful. His ex isn’t the only one looking for him. Kis ran away from home after he came out and his Uncle Tobias is now on his trail along with his boyfriend Caspian.  But with a vampire after him, Kis couldn’t have hoped for better than Chicago’s finest vampire hunter on his side. If they can find him first.

The Hellfire Legacy - New Release!

It's here, it's here, it's finally here! In honor of the release my blog's gone green!

The Hellfire Legacy : Night Wars Volume III

Everything has fallen apart. With the Night Shift HQ destroyed and supernatural murders spreading across Chicago, the Night Shift circles the wagons. Reeling from their losses, Fynn has to draw on every friend he has left to track down the monster responsible, a chase that will take his team far from home and the comfort of the world he thought he knew.

Questions about his family, an old feud and the Night Shift’s origins will bring Fynn closer to the truth, but he’s not sure he going to make it out of this one. He’s not sure he wants to. 

Ooh...I'm so excited. I promise, this makes up for the ending of the last book, and explains why that book had to end the way it did. It was not something I did lightly, I assure you of that. You can click on the cover image and you'll be taken straight to Torquere's buy page! 

A New Release and News

Today we see the release of The Eagle's Scheme, which is a sort of but not really follow up to The King's Dog about a lady knight named Joslin. This story introduces a new country and takes place after the events of The King's Dog, and hopefully illuminates some more of the political structures. I'm working another which will be from Germaine's POV and clear up some of Morraine's eccentricities.

Now, on to other news. First off, you may have noticed my announcements on FB and the Twitter, but I've recently contracted not one, but two new novels. The first of which is of course Death's Children, a sequel to The Grave Watchers, which is about a freshly risen watchwoman named Augustine Fleur under the loving guidance of our dear Sebastien. Expected release is sometime in January.

Now, the new news. I've contracted my very first YA novel! I've signed a contract with Prizm for a book called Vampirism and You! which follows the early days and confusion of a newly turned teenage vampire, Louis Von Graves. He has a handbook, a foster sire and a bad attitude. The displaced British native ends up in an American high school and hijinks ensue as he tries to figure out A) Should he feed on drama kids or cheerleaders B) Is he not attracted to human girls, or is it vampire girls to C) Should he wear false fangs while playing Dracula in the school play?

You'll get to go along for the ride as Louis navigates through a very dark world with a dose of humor, stoicism and lots of sarcasm.

As an aside, I'm considering starting a new blog for my YA stuff. Not sure just yet, seeing as I don't write anything with material I wouldn't have read as a teenager, but still. Thoughts and comments appreciated on this matter.

Cheers my darlings.

The Night Shift

It's the Night Shift cover art folks! Look, shiny! Finally got a man in a scarf... I hope this is enough of a teaser for you folks at the moment, but in case it's not, here's an actual teaser:

Enjoy!

 The Night Shift

        Sharp, sweet and smoky tendrils of scent followed us. The stone floor beneath my feet was getting slick as Simon bled on it -- he ran just in front of me. Behind us the howls were starting. Throaty, piercing sounds that made your hair stand on end and burned into your memory as surely as that time you walked in on your Great-Aunt Shirley in the bathtub.

          Simon -- my partner in this case and an unhealthily good looking young man several years my junior -- had been injured during what had been supposed to be a simple reconnaissance trip. The creatures behind us were ghouls; a nest of them had gotten together in a section of the Old City, and we’d been trying to make a count before taking affirmative action.

            I wanted to set fire to the whole damn complex, but somebody overruled me.

            “I see the stairs!” Simon shouted over his shoulder.

            I looked up, spotting the sliver of sunlight that was our escape hatch. The ghouls wouldn’t be able to follow us out into the light, thank God.

            After a moment’s thought, I caught up to Simon and slung him over my shoulder with a grunt. “You see one, shoot.”

            “Yes, sir.” He wasn’t particularly surprised to be manhandled, I’d done it before -- not to say the boy was injury prone but… He rested the butt of his shotgun against my shoulder, and I went for the stairs. The howls were getting closer as I took the first step, and Simon fired a warning shot that sent a sharp blow to my shoulder as I absorbed the recoil. I ignored it for the time being and kept going.

            At the top of the stairs I set him down, shoving him through the open doorway and turned on the crowd of ghouls that had paused just out of reach of the sunlight. They were ugly bastards. Unlike zombies, ghouls didn’t rot after they dug themselves out of the ground -- they dried. It was particularly unattractive. Several of them had huge distended stomachs to go with the long claws and pointed teeth. They’d fed recently.

            “Hi guys.” I smiled and pulled the grenade I’d been saving out of my pocket. “Bye guys.” I jerked the ring out and tossed the grenade amongst them, throwing myself out the door, slamming it shut and running. “Fire in the hole!”

            Simon took off and the explosion went off about five seconds later, blasting bits of building, and ghoul, into the air. Simon and I continued our retreat to the van, climbing in and shutting the door. The reinforced panels would keep off the worst of it, though I could hear the tinging as bits of stone and wood and bone struck the exterior.

            “That was fucking insane!” Simon snapped, lounging against the wall of the van and panting. “You’re nuts.”

            “Aw, it wasn’t as bad as the siren in Humbolt Park and you know it.”

            “One of these days, Adder, you’re going to get me killed.”

“Not today.” I took a closer look at his injury, a nasty gash along his side. “We’re heading to the hospital. Bronson, start her up.”

            The slender, salt and pepper redhead started up the van without further prompting and took off fast enough to leave tire behind on the concrete. “You blew something up again,” he complained.

            “No choice.” Well, there’d been a choice, but I’d liked mine.

            “How bad is it?”

            I looked at Simon, noting he had passed out. “He’ll be okay, just hurry.”

            Simon wasn’t particularly stalwart about pain, it seemed he’d pass out at the drop of the hat -- if you didn’t know why. Simon had been diagnosed with narcolepsy, because what was really wrong with him was too unbelievable for the medical community.

            “Is he out?”

            “Like a light.” I maintained pressure on the wound. “I’m fine too, thanks for asking.”

            “I assumed you were, because you weren’t complaining.” He took a sharp turn that knocked me into the wall. “Now hush.”

            Bronson wasn’t technically my superior; we were basically equals, but I still tended to do as he said. For one, I was almost certain that if I pissed him off he’d curse me. Bronson was, after all, a witch.

            I refrained from mouthing off and concentrated on keeping Simon from bleeding to death. All in all, not a bad day of training.