Love Is In the Air Blog Hop winner

The winner of a copy of Gateway to Hell (thanks to random.org) is:

Natasha!

I'll get in touch with you regarding your prize.

Thanks to everyone for commenting. Come back soon, y'all.


~yia~

Love Is In The Air Blog Hop

Well I'm not going to talk exactly about Valentine's Day but more why do I put romance in my stories?

Not all of my stories have romance, but most of them do. I've never intentionally put a romance in the story - it just turns out that way.

Romance is an element that is such a big part of our lives and influences people in many ways. It is part of our story as a human being. And since I write about human beings (mostly!), you can't avoid the subject of love - or at the very least, lust.

Take my paranormal romance novella, Gateway to Hell. It didn't begin as a romance. Most of my stories DO begin with a paranormal / supernatural / fantasy element. In this case, I had this woman who could open a Gateway to Hell. Initially GTH started as a short story about us, the reader, not knowing if this woman indeed could do what she claimed, or it was a delusion. But you see I introduced this good-looking Warder guy, and the rest as they say, is history.

The characters told me the story and that story included a big chunk of romance.

Will my other stories in the series have so much romance? I don't know, the characters haven't told me yet, but writing Warder 2, I can already see a romance in the future. So it could be.

To win a copy of Gateway to Hell, leave a comment below on why you or don't like like romance in stories.

And make sure to join in the blog hop and visit the other blogs.

You can find the list on the Under the Covers Book Blog. (For some reason Linky is not working)

Have fun doing the Blog Hop!


~yia~

Love Musa!

You know I've raved about Musa on this blog, so it's no secret that I love my publisher.

I love them even more for putting my book cover on one of the Musa banners.

Doesn't it look great with all the others? Oh, and look there's fellow Wench, Vonnie Hughes.



Oh, and here are some more of the fun banners...

~yia~

Book review

I got a good book review for Gateway to Hell from Jamie K over at Julie's Book Reviews.

Zeta's already not much of a people person. Maybe that makes her perfect for sweeping demons up into her personal gateways to hell. Unfortunately the whole " I can open and close gateways to Hell" doesn't really help in any other aspect of a personal life though. Meeting Daniel Richards though is a bit refreshing since once he believes her he sees it as a definite bonus. Downside...can Zeta trust herself to not hurt Daniel. She can't live with more mistakes. What she doesn't know though, is that she can't live without him either. Tricky Demons...

Good starter book. Looking forward to the next one, hopefully it will be longer!! Would have enjoyed to read it a while longer. 3.75 out of 5 stars. As warned before the first page, this book has very adult content!

I REALLY REALLY wanted to give this 4 stars but this wasn't long enough

You know what I have to do with Warder 2 right? Make it longer. 

It was lovely getting this when I've been so fogged. Makes me feel like a real writer. :)

~yia~

Fantabulousness too: Giveaways

I'm over at Bitten By Paranormal Romance giving away a couple of copies of Gateway to Hell. Come and say hi - click HERE.

See that's fantabulous as well right?

~yia~

Guest Blogging

A quick post to say I'm over at Anna Hackett's blog, Midnight Confessions, today.

Click HERE to go on over and say hi, and go into the running to win a copy of Gateway to Hell.

~yia~

A Warder Tale 1: Gateway to Hell ~ NOW available

I'm doing a little Snoopy dance as Gateway to Hell is now available from Musa Publishing.

Source

I'm very excited as this is the very first novella I have ever written and it's the first one to be released. I wrote it at a time when I needed a break from The Novel That Would Not End (aka the quest fantasy) and it was such as joy to work on. I also used things I had learned and brushed up on with Angela James' Before You Hit Send editing course, and it just felt right.

I had my official launch party last night on Facebook. I thought I'd give it a try, and we had fun with cyber drinks, food, and waiters. Being an ebook, the immediacy of FB seemed more appropriate for an e-launch, but I still want to celebrate in my old faithful blog.

So, I'm giving a copy away to one lucky commenter. The competition will close end Monday 10th September (allowing for OS folks to enter as well).

Gateway to Hell - available from Musa Publishing.

Release Day tomorrow....

It's almost here - the release of Gateway to Hell!


Here's the updated cover for it....

The series title has been added - with all that was going on pre conference, I forgot to mention it but Musa are stars and fixed it up no problem!


I'll be having a launch party over on Facebook tomorrow at 7.30pm, Adelaide time (that's UTC + 9.30).  The event page is here if you want to rsvp. To join tomorrow, just pop onto my page. There will be a giveaway or two.


Also, there will be a giveaway on this blog this coming weekend, so keep an eye out.


Today, I'm over at the DarkSide DownUnder talking Darksiders Reading Challenge.


And I've started posting on Eleni's Library again, so check it out.  Why not become a follower? :)


~yia~

Super Sunday....Cover Love and good news

I had to show off my cover for my upcoming novella, Gateway to Hell.

Can I say how much I love it. My cover goddess (Kelly Shorten from Musa Publishing) has done a wonderful job again. Just love the flower flames and the reflection and light.

Sigh. I'm a happy little camper.

But that's not all. I found out thanks to Kylie Griffin, the queen of news, that I received a Commended for my fantasy novel in RWNZ's Clendon contest.

It's the first time I've entered the Clendon and so I'm very happy to have made it on the Commended list. This MS is one that seems to have 2/3 love it and 1/3 not so much. 

It's in one more competition and hopefully will know how that goes soon.

Have a great week!

~yia~

Manic Monday

As usual it's been a busy old time for me.

I'm in the middle of edits for my novella, Gateway to Hell.

The conference planning is heating up with all things going to final stages. Only 35 days to go. Eeek. Why not check out the latest blog post on the Author Cafe.

Enchanted Realms is now available from Amazon.

I had a hiatus from blogging over on Eleni's Library, but have now updated it.  I'm not doing fantastic at my challenges but it's been a frantic year. So am happy that I've read and am reading something.


Eleni's Taverna has some minor cosmetic adjustments. I replaced the blue font with orange. How do you like it? And I've also added on the side bar, my upcoming appearances. Still some work to do but it's a job that gets done between others.


And in my design life, I've decided to have the blog back on the HelzKat Designs site rather than tumblr. If you are interested in the design work I do, why not go and follow.

Here's my latest design for Claytons 2012 (Romance Writers of Australia).

~yia~

Writing Update

I'm starting to feel more like a real author.

I have just received my first edits for Enchanted Realms, the anthology due for release on 29th June. Yes, for those who don't know much about the publishing industry - you read right,  first edits. Because it will go through at least another round. Don't worry, I'll keep you informed of the process. Think of it as my educational piece.

I have also filled out a cover brief and am waiting to see what the art department come up with! I may have other shorts published, but never have I had anything to do with covers. So it's quite exciting.

Other news is that the novella, Gateway to Hell, has been scheduled for release for 7th September 2012. So I will be able to enjoy this release fully without being in the middle of conference planning for the Gold Coast conference.


And finally, I have an Author page up on Facebook. So please come along and 'Like' me.

Life has been mad with family stuff and study now getting back into full swing, that I haven't been hanging around the social media circuit, other than to do the social media for the conference.


As for my goals for April - did I reach them? Um...sort of.

I entered one competition (not two), I looked over a short story but haven't started the edits yet, and I started the process to get my ITIN (got the Aussie part done).

So for May:

• Finish edits for Enchanted Realms
• Submit to short story anthology
• Continue ITIN stuff.
• Start a structural edit of my Shadow novella.

Fingers crossed!

~yia~

Woohoo!

I'm happy to announce that my paranormal romance novella, Gateway to Hell,  has been accepted by Musa Publishing!

It will be under the Thalia line and is exptected for release in the US summer.

So woohoo! Dancing a little jig here.

Image: bestclipartblog.com

I will get more information to you, my peeps, as soon as I know.

~yia~