Summer Slam

Oy, what a crazy life! For those of you familiar with me know that my house has been torn apart for what is laughingly called remodeling...ha, I'm overrun with teenage boys, and coming back from a brief vacation I discovered not one, but TWO sets of copy edits waiting for me...sigh. In an effort to apologize to my wonderful, intelligent, incredibly understanding readers (yes, I'm a suck-up) for my lack of a remotely coherent blog :) I've instead decided to cut to the chase and offer a free book...yeah!! As a twist, I've decided to offer one of my first paranormals, (written under the name Debbie Raleigh) My Lord Eternity. Just as a heads up I'll warn you that it's set during the regency era.

Any one interested in winning My Lord Eternity just needs to tell me which of your favorite books you'd like to see made into a movie...mine would be Janet Evanovich's Plum series. As always I'll chose a number at random!

Best,
Alex

New Sale, Upcoming Releases & Pre-Orders Galore!

The big news this week for me is that I've sold One & Only to Samhain Publishing! One & Only, for those of you who don't know, was the first vampire story I ever wrote. It was also the first story I ever sold to a publisher - albeit a very small publisher. The story won a contest and was offered a publication spot, which I jumped at. I was hooked! A few weeks later, my first dragon book sold to a slightly larger publisher and that one actually ended up coming out first, but I doubt one would have happened without the other to spur on my confidence.

One & Only story started life as a very short 3,500 word piece about Atticus, an ancient vampire, and the woman who unexpectedly came into his life to make his endless years worthwhile once more. Her name was Lissa. The story was so short back then, they didn't even have last names. LOL.

Well, the story has been turned inside out and upside down, rewritten to over six times its original size and now they even have room for last names! The newly re-"vamped" story (sorry, I couldn't help myself) will be out from Samhain later this year. In all likelihood, the next two stories in the now out-of-print series will follow in the coming months. There was some talk of gathering the three re-written novellas (One & Only, Rare Vintage & Phantom Desires) together in a print anthology that would probably be out sometime in 2009 or 2010, but the details haven't been nailed down yet, so stay tuned on that.

In other news, the third book in my EPPIE Award Winning Resonance Mates series is coming out in ebook formats on August 5th. It's called Jaci's Experiment and it's my favorite book in the series to date! Lots of interesting secondary characters popped up in this book and they'll most likely get books of their own now, though it wasn't in the original plan. Hey, things change, you know? LOL.

If you're an ebook fan, look for Jaci's Experiment on August 5th. If you're a print-only reader, you'll have to wait until next year for Jaci, but Book 2 in the series, Davin's Quest, will be out in December and is already on pre-order from Amazon, along with two of my other forthcoming titles.

My October print release, Sweeter Than Wine, is already up for pre-order as is Davin's Quest and next March's FireDrake. All on sale! Stay tuned to my website for more information, as it becomes available.

Bianca D'Arc
Blog - Website - Group

Im late a day but I do have good reason...

Well Yesterday was pure hell for me. the damn cable wasn't working most of the day so neither was my phone or TV. I was the unfortunate victim of cabin fever. Thankfully I wasn't picked up for manslaughter or dogslaughter as i did get some editing work done on a piece Audra and I will be sending out for submissions in a short while. So it wasnt a total loss. So lemme get down to business.

The Winner of the GIFTS print is CHERYL. Congrats. As soon as the damn book gets to me *pubby hasn't sent copies yet but they will soon* Ill send you a copy, signed, with Duvall Inc. goodies like a signed poster, magnet, bookmarks and other fun stuff. I hope you enjoy it. Email me at stella@stellaandaudra.com and send me your snail mail addy.

So even though I'm home, my relaxation is short lived. Come Monday I will be running around yet again like a chicken without a head. Why? because I'm driving down to NC for the Tease Publishing event in Jacksonville, on the 17th. So Ill be spending some time with my EIC and Publisher which will be cool, and Joe and I will spend his birthday on the beach. So its kinda relaxing.

The 26th I have another signing I have been getting ready for for about three months. Thankfully its just up the road so its not too bad actually. Then Im off the signing hook so to speak till the end of August, then it starts all over again.

And Audra doesn't make her way home from the Dominican Republic till the 14th. So we wont start writing again till the 20th. I'm looking forward to this SO much. We have a lot that needs to be finished, and I cant wait to get some new work out there to everyone.

And, I figured I would mention, that I have started writing on my own, under the name of Dagmar Avery. Ill only be working on novella's and short stories with this name, so stay tuned, I'm hoping for good good things coming out of this camp.

So anyways, now that my updates are done, I figured I should start my actual blog post eh? Sad to say I dont have much to talk about thats witty. Coming home from Scotland was great, and i would visit again, and will, but i couldnt live there. Food is way too weird. But the wedding was fantastic, and Audra looked SO beautiful, and the wedding was a lot of fun. I miss being with my sister, but I know Ill see her soon. And Ill get something cool from the DR, HEH. If your interested in seeing piccys and video from my trip you can do so HERE
I hope that you enjoy them. And now, on to my contest for the month....

Im giving away a really nice 24k gold plated bookmark from Scotland, as well as winners CHOICE of our print backlist, and a CD of music that inspired the book they choose. *and yes, I do have playlists for every book we write, it helps with the creative process of getting into the characters head* .

How do you win? Simple!

Go to the link, and post here your thoughts on the pictures and videos from my trip, and pick your favorite video. Ill be choosing a winner and posting on August 10th. So you have about 1 month to enter and win. good luck and thanks for reading! See you next month, bearing unforeseen circumstances!