Throwback Promo

I'm presenting a throwback to a little UF number called Nightmare Ink.
 

With the needle of a tattoo gun, Isa Romanchzyk has the power to create and destroy. In her shop Nightmare Ink, Isa helps those in need by binding the powers embedded in their Live Ink—the magical tattoos that can enhance the life of the wearer, or end it. But binding tattoos has earned Isa the contempt of her fellow artists—including her former lover Daniel.

When a friend comes to the shop with a tattoo on the verge of killing him, Isa can’t turn him away. For the first time in years, rather than binding and destroying the tattoo, she fixes it, working Live Ink into her friend’s skin, something she'd sworn she’d never do again. Breaking her vow soon becomes the least of her problems.

Isa is horrified to discover her friend’s body in the shop, but the real nightmare begins when she’s abducted and inked with a Living Tattoo against her will. Now, as she seeks retribution from the man who betrayed her, Isa must figure out how to bind her Living Tattoo before it consumes her completely...

Excerpt:

Isa tripped, landing on the big, sharp-edged stones of a railroad grade, her foot still hooked on one rusty metal rail of the track. The pushes of strength from the alien other inside her skin had evaporated. So Isa crawled, her hair and sheet dragging through foul-smelling puddles. The raven leading her away from her prison hopped in front of her as if afraid to leave her sight. When she paused in a vain attempt to catch her breath, the bird took up a strand of her filthy hair and pulled. 

Freedom, the male voice sighed into her head. The Ink.

Isa shuddered. Her strength failed, and she folded to the ground. At least it was dry. Was she lying on sand? Or concrete? How far had she gotten? 

Far. 

Why couldn’t she remember? The raven shrieked. 

Why? the male voice in her head whispered. Why debilitate you? 

“To break my spirit,” Isa murmured. “To break my will.” 

So I could break you. 

“And break free of me, yes.” 

He intends for me to kill you. 

“Yes.” 

Release me. 

“No.” 

He didn’t break you. He couldn’t. 

“Not like that.”

Spring Book Promo of Alexia's Recent Reads!

Here in zone 4b the grass is turning green, there are buds on the trees, and sprouts are poking their heads up in my garden—it’s spring! Which also means, it’s spring promo week! 

I don’t have any new promo for myself, I still need to get the guts to do something with my current manuscript, but I’ve read some great SFF books recently that I’m excited to share with you today. 

Intergalactic Exterminators, INC by Ash Bishop is a humorous science fiction that’s perfect if 

you’re in the mood for a Men In Black type read—so good and funny!!

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is a historical fantasy filled with the fae and a reclusive professor doing her best to research them. The main character, Emily Wilde, is so antisocial and anal which I found absolutely refreshing and adorable. Oh, and she does have an entire village grow on her, so it’s sweet too. 

Vampire Weekend is another fantastic book by Mike Chen. He’s able to write incredible stories with these deep platonic relationships, I can’t get enough! And this one has vampires—you can’t resist!

The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber will hit the spot if you’re in the mood for a creepy, historical fantasy with some steampunk vibes. Hieber has a way of writing that makes your skin prickle with unease. Keep her books in mind come October!

There’s my spring promo—of books I’m a fan of! What have you read recently that wowed you?

Releasing Monday: ROGUE FAMILIAR

 

     

 

It. Is. Finished.

Yes, oh my lovelies: I completed the final proofing of ROGUE FAMILIAR this morning and will have it uploaded everywhere tomorrow for release on Monday, April 24. 

Cue the rejoicing!!!

And, since this is coincidentally (OR NOT???) spring promo week here at the SFF Seven, it's actually apropos for me to be mentioning this book. I know a lot of you have been waiting for something like mumble mumble two months mumble for this book. All I can offer is.... 

Now you can haz!

He left to save her from herself… But who will save him from her?

When Lady Seliah Phel wakes from a drugged sleep to find herself abandoned by her newly bonded wizard, she vows revenge—and to hunt him down. Tracking him through the familiar wilds of the marshlands of her home is the easy part; learning to use her nascent magical skills is something else entirely. So is facing the vast, uncaring society of the Convocation in a time of brewing war.

Jadren El-Adrel is not known for doing the right thing, but getting as far away from Seliah as possible before he drains her dry will be his one noble gesture. So what if she weeps a few tears. Better than her dying in his service—or enabling him to become the ravenous beast that crawls beneath his skin. Unfortunately, in his self-imposed exile, and without the power of his familiar, Jadren quickly runs afoul of the enemy.

As her vengeful quest for recapture becomes a rescue mission, Selly faces all she still doesn’t know about the greater world of wizards and familiars. And Jadren, once determined to walk his own path and stay far, far away from the idealistic fools of House Phel, finds himself aligning with them against the house of his birth. War is coming to the Convocation, which means a clever wizard should pick the side most likely to win.

Sadly, Jadren has never been all that clever…

 

     

 

As a special treat, here's a little excerpt:

It wasn’t as if magic made logical sense at the best of times anyway. Closing his eyes, trying to screen out the worry that he hadn’t heard Seliah’s heart beat in far too long—you wouldn’t be able to hear it from here anyway, idiot—he let his fingers drift over the gadgets. Waiting for one to speak to him. As if a metal doohickey could speak.

You’re wasting time, his inner voice observed. Wasting what little life Seliah has left.

I’m not. She wouldn’t survive a trip to find a healer. She might not survive the next few minutes.

At least finding a healer has a chance of working.

An infinitesimally small chance.

Still a non-zero chance, whereas this… What are you even thinking? You might as well dance around the bed beseeching the spirits of our ancestors to intervene.

He paused. Is that something people do?

You’re asking me? I am you. I don’t know anything more than you do.

I’m not asking you. I’m wanting you to shut up.

Then shut up.

You shut up! Cursing in frustration, Jadren took his own advice and attempted to quiet his mind. If this had any chance of working—It doesn’t. Shh.—then he needed to give it his all. Quiet mind. Trust his wizard’s intuition. Seliah deserved his best effort.

 

     

 

Meet the Gatekeeper on a Mission from Hel

 This Week's Topic: Book Promo! (Ours or someone else's)

Ayo, lemme introduce you to my gothic pinup girl with the scary skill of opening gates as small as a capillary or as large as a continent. In the completed 7-book Immortal Spy Urban Fantasy series, Bix (no last name, she's waaaaay too old for that) teams up with a motley crew of spies and a battalion of Berserkers to defend the Mid World collective from enemies foreign and domestic.

• Urban Location: Greater Washington D.C. Metro Area
• Featuring: Fates, Gods, Dragons, Angels, Berserkers…and one very special goblin.

Get the Series in eBook or Paperback

Maybe She Was Born Lucky. Maybe She Worked Her Butt Off

1 Image credit by PIRO4D from Pixabay

 

In any creative field, there are those who stand out, and publishing is no different. You know who I mean; we call them overnight successes or media sensations, and talk about how they breezed through the publishing process. We refer to their work as lightning in a bottle, because of course the acclaim and attention it’s receiving is a one-off. There’s no way the critical acclaim and subsequent popularity could be the result of something as mundane as hard work.

And yet, it almost always is.

The thing is, when hard work pays off it invariably looks like luck. Why that is I’ll never know, but I’ve seen it happen time and again. For instance, a friend of mine started out ghost writing ten years ago, and back then she made about one hundred dollars per book. Now she makes in excess of ten thousand dollars per book, and has worked with some of the biggest names in publishing. 

Another friend of mine (see how I’m not naming names? That’s another aspect of luck—I know enough about the legal system to keep myself from getting sued for libel) released an unconventional YA book that shot up the charts, was translated into multiple languages, spawned three sequels and many reprints, and is currently being made into a movie. All the articles touting her “overnight success”—her luckiness—conveniently ignored the first five books she’d released in the same genre.

2 image credit: by Adina Voicu from Pixabay

Therefore, my friends, I must conclude that the appearance of luck is really the result of many months, years, or even decades of hard work. This may seem daunting at first, but I rather enjoy the concept. Any one of us can improve our chances of success by working hard, honing our craft, and continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

And that is how we make our own luck.

How do you make your own luck? Tell us in the comments, and as always, happy reading!

 Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library.) An early love of mythology and folklore led to her epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Parthalan, and her day job as a cubicle monkey helped shape her urban fantasy, Copper Girl. When she’s not writing about things that go bump in the night (and sometimes during the day) she’s working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Get to know Jenn at https://authorjenniferallisprovost.com

Jenn’s latest release, Oleander, is available here: https://books2read.com/poisongarden-oleander

Luck Fuel

 How do we know that Marcella is back at the day job full time and that all the projects are on fire? 

She forgets everything. Everything. 

My humble apologies. But. To answer the question: Luck or Hard work

Luck is lovely and you definitely need all of it you can get in this business, but hard work is what makes luck in the first place. Working hard is luck fuel. Stockpile that stuff.

Serendipity and Success - Acknowledging the Reality

 

A lil reminder that my FALLING UNDER trilogy is now re-released and on Kindle Unlimited! These books are NOT fantasy, but are contemporary erotic romance. If that's the kind of thing you like, then you may like these! 

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is hard work vs. luck as applies to authorial success.

One of my least favorite pieces of advice from successful authors is when they declare something along the lines of "Just write a good book!" This happens a lot with debut authors, happily reveling in the out-of-the-gate success of their first effort. I say this because authors who've had lots of trunked books or only midlist success almost never say this.

Why?

Because they know that writing a good book isn't enough.

Yes, writing a good book is key. Improving our craft as authors is critically important. That's where the hard work comes in. At least, one kind of hard work, the foundational kind. If the books aren't written and revised and polished to the best of our ability, there's nothing to sell. 

On the other hand... luck is a huge factor in publishing. It just IS. That's why I roll my eyes at any successful author who fails to acknowledge the role of serendipity in their rise to (relative) fame and glory. As human beings - especially ones with egos sufficient to withstand the slings and arrows of creative life, which is rife with downs as well as ups - we like to credit ourselves with being awesome. Are we fortunate or are we just that good?

We'd all like to think we're just that good.

The thing is, lots of creators are really good. And lots of good books go nowhere. Acknowledging the role of serendipity in success not only keeps us humble - remember that ego is the enemy! - but also should reassure us when things don't go our way. Authors careers, as previously noted, are rife with ups and downs. We can't control the luck. What we CAN do is work hard and put ourselves out there so the luck can find us. 

Best of luck to you all!

93% Hard Work; 7% Luck

 This Week's Topic: Luck vs Hard Work

“Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity"

-- Roman philosopher Senec

I have to agree with ol' Senec on this one. There's a lot of luck needed to be successful in any business, but no amount of luck will propel you to the commercial heights of King, Steel, Roberts, or Patterson if you don't put in the hard work. With an ever-moving goalpost of what defines success for each of us at various stages of our career, we simply cannot sit on our laurels hoping for "the call" that will vault us into the next level of achievement. Would I love to have a Scalzi or Bardugo eight-figure publishing deal? Suuuuure. Would I be beyond giddy if Netflix or Amazon purchased, produced, and aired one of my series? Yup, yup, yup.

Do I have the sales to attract that sphere of attention? [slaps thigh, dies laughing] Erm, no. Do I have the fan base or critically-placed influencer to put my work in front of the right people? Not that I'm aware. [Yo, I love the fans I do have!] Do I have the angel investor whose resources will ensure my licensed work will survive the gauntlet through the graveyard of abandoned projects? Again, no. [I keep checking the feathers in my yard, but they all came from buzzards. Sigh.]

So many things go wrong behind the scenes over which authors have zero control, be it a traditional 2-book publishing deal or a tv-rights purchase. For the sake of my sanity, I can only stress about the things I can control. The rest is up to...luck. 

There are chances I missed because I wasn't ready for them. I thought I was, but no. I hadn't done the work that would've made me eligible, much less competitive. There is no one to blame for that but myself. Opportunity knocked and I couldn't answer. Sucked, no doubt. Lessons learned the hard way are effective motivations, though. So, now, I put in the hard work. I focus on what I can control. Regardless of whether fortune will favor me, I continue the write, to improve my craft, to organically grow my fan base, and to build a revenue-generating backlist that proves to myself that I've done the best I can.

Should luck visit on the heels of opportunity, I hope to be ready this time. After all, success is 93% hard work and 7% luck.