New Kindle Release: The Heartbeat Thief by AJ Krafton

AJ Krafton has just released her debut New Adult novel…a Victorian dark fantasy, THE HEARTBEAT THIEF.

“True to its word, "The Heartbeat Thief" is part Jane Austen, part Edgar Allen Poe. The author revives the best of the style of writing found in the classics: the introspect of characters, lovely allusions comparing characters to nature and life, beautiful alliteration and prose. Mixed with this is a deep foreboding of death, a macabre sensation that follows Senza throughout the story…” Ronesa Aveela, Author of the Mystical Emona series

BUY IT NOW ON AMAZON

Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth-- she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it.

THE HEARTBEAT THIEF is on sale for 99c through Saturday, June 13, 2015.

Time Out for Tea

So, the book came out today.*drums fingers* Yep.

What am I doing, you ask? Why aren’t I madly blogging and shouting and hugging the print ARC?

Well, I’m having tea, of course. It’s a quiet moment.

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I’m usually having tea. I have an electric tea pot that keeps me in fresh supply of Darjeeling and Irish Breakfast and I carry a thermos when I leave the house. It's caffeine for the writing and bliss for the soul. I thrive on tea.

But today, I’m not having any old tea. I’m brewing a pot of Senza Fyne tea.

*cheeky grin* That’s right. I actually named a tea after the main character in my Victorian dark fantasy THE HEARTBEAT THIEF.

Tea is an important aspect of Senza’s life. It’s nearly invisible in its necessity and commonplace constancy, yet it's the vehicle for so many important social negotiations. It’s a comforting ritual that she enjoys all her very long life, a way to connect to the past and to the memory of who she is, who she was, who she’s loved and lost. Here is the tea lore for Senza Fyne tea from Adagio:

“The Heartbeat Thief herself: Senza Fyne. Her love for a proper tea is as eternal as her youth and beauty. This blend evokes the bright flavors of her Victorian childhood, all its hopes and aspirations...as well as a sobering touch of earthiness. Life and death, breath and grave, beauty amidst the decay. Such is the complexity of she who stands apart from life and death.”

Right now, the Senza Fyne tea is brewing. In a few minutes, it will be poured and sugared and sampled (I haven’t tasted it yet so I’m jittery with anticipation.) I even have a plate of biscuits waiting for Senza’s arrival. I can’t wait for that first sip.

If I like it, I’ll share it with you all. (Right now, it’s set to “private” on the Adagio.com website.) And, who knows? Maybe new blends are coming. There’s Knell, Felicity, Mary…so many characters, so many unique flavors to their stories.)

While you’ll have to wait a little longer for a taste of Senza Fyne tea, you don’t have to wait to read her story. THE HEARTBEAT THIEF released on Kindle today, so you can download your copy now.

To learn more about AJ (who also writes as Ash Krafton) visit her web site.

You can also join in the release day giveaway by entering through this Rafflecopter.

The Heartbeat Thief: Happy Dance and Swag Time

Today, I'm celebrating. That means, party favors!

The Heartbeat Thief is coming out on June 12...that's only 15 days away.

And last night, for the first time, the book hit the Top 100 lists on Amazon.

It's officially a BEST SELLER!

I want to thank everyone who has pre-ordered their copy already... remember you can get a signed poster from me when you email me the deets (for more on that giveaway, see THIS POST)

But today, I'm feeling super inspired. I've been at the swag all morning.

I'll be slipping cameos into random mailers for the people who request their poster. Want one? You know what to do... pre-order your copy and drop me a line. One of these beats can be yours!

I'm also working on gorgeous black lace chokers for the blog tour giveaway... stay tuned for more about the upcoming release tour.

 

So keep those emails coming so I can get your poster and swag to you... and thank you so much for giving THE HEARTBEAT THIEF a chance to become an Amazon BESTSELLER!

#Fae20kGiveaway Win Books, Gift Cards, & Awesomeness

Hey there! It's Sarah Fae here from FaeBooks.co.uk. Today I'm 

celebrating! I am celebrating not only reaching 20,000 followers, but now over 25,000 followers! I've teamed up with a bunch of authors, crafters, bloggers and more and together we're bringing you this awesome event! Squeeee!!!! I just want to point out that this is another INTERNATIONAL giveaway of mine. So nobody gets excluded! Always awesome, right? Anyway...

Welcome to the #Fae20kGiveaway

... Oh yes, it has a hashtag!

I'm super excited right now, so let's just get straight down to business and tell you who the fabulous sponsors of this giveaway are.

Cover reveal! #MeganThomason presents the cover for "generate", book three in the #daynight series

Today, please welcome fellow Infinite Inkling MEGAN THOMASON! She's proud to reveal the cover for book three in her wildly-popular daynight series... generate!



 

 

generate blurb:

A leader of the free world with an appalling agenda.

A medical advance that promises to cure, kills instead. 

A declaration of revenge.

An act of war.

The race to stop it all.

Fear The Second Chance Institute. After decades of plotting and testing, the SCI stands ready to execute their plan and annihilate anyone who threatens it. They’ll stop at nothing and for no one—not the Deny the SCI movement, nor the Exiler Nation, Arbiters, and Genitors—even if it means war.

Fear Kira Donovan. Empowered, determined, and bold, Kira must persuade the Genitor leaders to stop the atrocities happening at the hand of the SCI—or, if they refuse, she’ll risk everything to do it herself.

Fear Ethan Darcton. Unwilling to submit to any authority, Ethan embarks on his own agenda, teetering loyalties between the Arbiters, the SCI, and the Deny the SCI movement on Earth.

 

Fear Blake Sundry. Rewarded for his sacrifice, Blake finds new life on Aether, an assignment to watch over the Exiler Nation, and unlikely allies in his crusade to save thousands of innocent lives.

Full of suspense, action, warring mandates, romance, and humor, generate is book #3 in the award-winning, bestselling daynight series.

 



Megan Thomason

Bestselling, award-winning author Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn't typing away on her laptop, she's reading books on her phone--hundreds in the last year--or attending to the needs of her family. Megan's fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac.

Follow the daynight series on Facebook here.
Follow Author Megan Thomason on Facebook here.
Follow Megan on Twitter here.
Visit Megan's blog here.
Download a sample or buy daynight  (daynight #1) here.
Download a sample or buy clean slate complex (daynight #1.5) here.
Download a sample or buy arbitrate (daynight #2) here.
Email Megan here.

 

#Free on #Kindle and #Kobo! CONTRIBUTOR by Nicole Ciacchella

I'm always happy to share news about my fellow Infinite Inklings...

Here's your chance to grab a free copy of CONTRIBUTOR by Nicole Ciacchella!

 

 

 

Book 1 of the young adult/new adult post-apocalyptic and dystopian Contributor trilogy.

 

When the Great Famine threatened the existence of mankind, the Creators saved humanity. Humanity has been their loyal subject ever since.

 

This history has been ingrained in seventeen-year-old Dara Morrow since her first day of Creator-sponsored school. Grateful for the life-giving necessities her Creator provides, Dara is thrilled to be one of three students chosen for an elite, year-long apprenticeship program. Now is her chance to prove herself a devoted Contributor.

 

But Dara’s competition is ruthless and will stop at nothing to win the competition. Worse yet, her exacting master has little patience for her.

 

Then Dara’s mother is seriously injured, and Dara realizes the price of being a Contributor: once you’ve outlived your usefulness, you’re discarded. Can Dara learn to manipulate the system to save not only herself, but everyone she loves?

 

Amazon | Kobo

 

 

About The Author

Nicole has progressed from scribbling in notebooks to banging on keyboards, but she’s never managed to stop daydreaming at inappropriate moments.

When not answering the demands of her characters, Nicole can often be found curled up with a good book or spending far too many hours acting the hero in whatever video game is her obsession of the moment.

One of Nicole’s other great passions is travel. She loves being married to a native Belgian, both because she likes the idea of being “The American” and because it gives her plenty of excuses to visit Europe—that wondrous land of coffee, chocolate, pastry, and some other stuff—as often as possible.
Michigan born and raised, Nicole lives there with her honorary Michigander/Belgian husband and her two children. A Michigan State University alum, Nicole bleeds green and is a Spartan for life.

 

 

Nicole Ciacchella

Website www.nciacchella.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/nciacchella
Twitter www.twitter.com/nciacchella
Goodreads www.goodreads.com/nciacchella
 

THE HEARTBEAT THIEF: one step closer to release! #coverart #blurb

My first New Adult title, a Victorian dark fantasy called THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, has made another step toward release. I've written my blurb. :)

Admittedly, I had gotten quite distracted with the art work...  I absolutely love this imagery because it captures everything I put into the story. The beautiful debutante. The eerie, gothic elements. The sense of seduction and magic. I wanted to create a cover that strikes the chords of the soul even before the first pages are read.

This cover does it for me, over and over again.

The cover isn't the only element of a book's production, however entertaining it can be. You can't just write a story, dress it in a gorgeous cover, and send it out to the world. There are several other steps that have to be checked off, one by one, before that book goes public.

One step is editing/revising, with a big part of that being the employment of advanced readers. I'm fortunate to have some very talented readers and writers take a crack at this book, and am waiting to hear back from a few others. So far, the response has been enormously helpful... and phenomenally positive. With each round of beta reader comments, the book gets honed and polished and perfected, and I wake up each day feeling more enthusiastic about this book than I had the day before. Thank you, my precious beta readers!

The latest step is one that I wanted to share with you today... the blurb.

Now, I'd already settled on my hook line, and have even come up with the comparative statement that I used to lure my beta readers into reading it. How is it that I haven't done the blurb yet?

Answer:
A) Haven't needed one yet
B) Haven't gotten that far on the to-do list yet
C) It's ridiculously difficult to sum up an entire book in a few catchy paragraphs
D) All of the above

Writing a blurb is an essential step toward a book's release. It's the description that goes on the back of print books, as well as what a reader sees when they come across the book on a retail website. Not only does it have to written, it has to be good enough to make a reader say "I want to know MORE."

It also has to accurately reflect what the story is all about. In the past, I wrote blurbs early on in a book's development, only to realize that once the book was finished, it looked nothing like that original blurb.

No wonder I moved "Write the Blurb" downward on the to-do list. :) 

So, here is the long-awaited blurb...



THE HEARTBEAT THIEF by AJ KRAFTON

Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth—she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it.

In 1860 Surrey, a young woman has only one occupation: to marry. Senza Fyne is beautiful, intelligent, and lacks neither wealth nor connections. Finding a husband shouldn’t be difficult, not when she has her entire life before her. But it’s not life that preoccupies her thoughts. It’s death—and that shadowy spectre haunts her every step.

So does Mr. Knell. Heart-thumpingly attractive, obviously eligible—he’d be her perfect match if only he wasn’t so macabre. All his talk about death, all that teasing about knowing how to avoid it…

When her mother arranges a courtship with another man, Senza is desperate for escape from a dull prescripted destiny. Impulsively, she takes Knell up on his offer. He casts a spell that frees her from the cruelty of time and the threat of death—but at a steep price. In order to maintain eternal youth, she must feed on the heartbeats of others.

It’s a little bit Jane Austen, a little bit Edgar Allan Poe, and a whole lot of stealing heartbeats in order to stay young and beautiful forever. From the posh London season to the back alleys of Whitechapel…across the Channel, across the Pond, across the seas of Time…

How far will Senza Fyne go to avoid Death?

So... that's my book, in less than 250 words. Does it make you want to know more? I'd love to hear what you think.

Bollywood, Books, & Giveaways: Sonali Dev and Susan Kaye Quinn!

Romance and Intrigue: Bollywood Style Giveaway

Something Bollywood Going On Here

Sonali Dev and Susan Kaye Quinn met in a most unusual place: Library Journal's Top 10 E-Romance List for 2014. Sonali's A Bollywood Affair and Susan's Third Daughter both made the list with their Bollywood-themed romances - something that was so cool, it cried out to be celebrated!

Scroll down to win some great Bollywood-themed prizes!

Contemporary and Steampunk Bollywood Romance

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

Mili Rathod hasn’t seen her husband in twenty years—not since she was promised to him at the age of four. Yet marriage has allowed Mili a freedom rarely given to girls in her village. Her grandmother has even allowed her to leave India and study in America for eight months, all to make her the perfect modern wife. Which is exactly what Mili longs to be—if her husband would just come and claim her.

Bollywood’s favorite director, Samir Rathod, has come to Michigan to secure a divorce for his older brother. Persuading a naïve village girl to sign the papers should be easy for someone with Samir’s tabloid-famous charm. But Mili is neither a fool nor a gold-digger. Open-hearted yet complex, she’s trying to reconcile her independence with cherished traditions. And before he can stop himself, Samir is immersed in Mili’s life—cooking her dal and rotis, escorting her to her roommate’s elaborate Indian wedding, and wondering where his loyalties and happiness lie.

Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #1) by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Third Daughter of the Queen wants to her birthday to arrive so she'll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince's proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince's proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

Third Daughter is the first book in the Dharian Affairs Trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance takes place in an east-indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, saber duels, and lots of royal intrigue. And, of course, kissing.

~*~

Romance and Intrigue: Bollywood Style

This short Q&A with Sonali and Susan talks about marrying for love and writing romance!

Q: Marrying for love is a modern, and in some ways Western, concept, but arranged marriages have a long and complicated history. How does your novel tackle the subject of arranged marriage?

Sue: Third Daughter is set in a fantasy world, but it’s a blend of cultures in the real one, including being an analog to India (both current day and some of the past). In the Dharian Affairs world, royal marriages have a history of being arranged for political purposes, but the general population of the countries marry for love. This leaves the titular Daughters with varying conflicts between marrying for duty and marrying for love – some embracing their arranged marriages, some fighting against it. The marriage dynamics of the three daughters in the trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter) drive much of the story – along with political intrigue and skyships, of course!

Sonali: In India where I grew up arranged marriages are still very much a part of the fabric of the culture. Having said that, one of the most interesting and unique things about Indian society is how diverse it is within itself. While you still have communities and families who will give the marrying person absolutely no say in whom they marry there are those who don't believe their parents and families have any say when it comes to whom they choose to marry or live with, and then there is the rest of the sizable population who falls somewhere between those two belief systems. In A Bollywood Affair, Mili is from a tiny village from a very orthodox family and it is perfectly natural that her family would arrange her marriage. She would expect that. It wouldn't even strike a girl from her background that she could choose for herself. The age at which she was married isn't usual, though, but there is a reason why her grandmother gets her married that young. As for her being in love with her husband, again, the conditioning to be devoted to your husband is so ingrained in the culture that it would be strange if someone like Mili didn't love someone she believed was her husband. 

Q: Whether set in a fantasy world or the modern one, romance is romance! There are many romance tropes – star-crossed lovers, lovers thrown together by circumstance, enemies turned lovers – what kind(s) of romance tropes does your novel contain?

Sue: My books are really a blend of romance and adventure, although the first book is a classic “lovers thrown together by circumstance” as Aniri (the Third Daughter) goes undercover in accepting a marriage proposal from the barbarian prince in the north in order to spy on him and determine if his country truly has the rumored flying machine that would upend the political dynamics in both their countries.

Sonali: Although I didn't set out to write it that way, several readers have pointed out that A Bollywood Affair is a Worldly Rake and an Ingenue Virgin trope. And now that I think about it, there's truth to that. 

Q: Are you planning on writing more romances in this story-world? If so, tell us about it!

Sue: The Dharian Affairs trilogy is complete, but I’ve enjoyed writing in this east-Indian steampunk fantasy romance world so much, I’ve decided to do a follow-on trilogy from the point of view of a new character—a female tinker who has a grand invention that may change the world, but also is caught between the spy she might love and the spy she can’t resist. Those books likely won’t be written for a year or two, but I will cycle back to writing in this world in the future!

Sonali: The Bollywood Bride comes out next year and it's the story of a Bollywood star who comes home to Chicago after ten years to escape a scandal in Mumbai and comes face to face with the man she betrayed for stardom. And then there are two more stories I'm working on in the same series. Which isn't a series in terms of continuity or overlapping characters but because the stories are set in the same world and either the hero or the heroine work in Bollywood. 

~*~

WIN BOLLYWOOD PRIZES

Paperback of Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #1)

The Dharian Affairs Trilogy in Ebook

2 Paperback copies of A Bollywood Affair 

Handwoven Pashmina shawl from India

Sticker Henna Tattoos

Indian bangles (bracelets)

(all physical prizes are US ONLY; ebook is INTERNATIONAL)

a Rafflecopter giveaway