A fantastic weekend and an amazing contest coming!

Hey All!

The AAD weekend was a rousing success. All the authors and readers had a fantastic time, and the food was great too. Sadly, Jacki missed much of the weekend, but on the upswing, we are going to have AAD again next year! So all shall be redeemed!

I'm sure you are going to see lots of pictures of the weekend if you havent already, and I bet your all envious about the goodies that were given out. What? you dont know what they were? Well Attendees received at least 6-8 free books from Dorchester, Tease Publishing, Jacki Frank, Changeling Press and others, goodies bags, wax lips, a tshirt, a pocket mirror from Tease Publishing, lots of promo goodies, a cooler from Phaze books, and Ooh yeah over 5000$ in door prizes were give away this weekend too!

So we decided, why not let the ones that stayed home win something, and get pumped for next year? Well... Starting November 5th, you will get your chance!

On November 5th, there will be a post on this blog with the blog homes of almost all the authors involved in this years AAD weekend. To win a prize, simply visit the blogs, read the blogs, and then answer this question for each blog: "What did (insert authors name here) blog about for the AAD weekend?"

We will be posting the email address to send these answers to on the 5th as well. PLEASE put all answers into ONE email. You are only elligible to win if you have a answer for EVERY author on the list, no partial lists will win.

So what do you win? How about a welcome bag filled with stuff from the event? And guess what? we have 5 of these bags to give away, though sadly, they wont have everything give away at the event. If you would like that, you need to come to the event next year in September, LOL.

So who is excited for the 5th! the Blog hunt will be on!

Authors After Dark Weekend was awesome!

My day to blog and i've literally just walked in the door from the fabulous Authors After Dark weekend.

Stella did an amazing job and I think everyone had a really great time! I know I did.

I arrived on Friday just in time for the Pantheon mini event, which was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with old friends and start meeting new people. After the mini event we took to the ballroom for a very nice cocktail party and everyone got to ooh and ahh over the raffle baskets. I love that part. :)

Before you knew it, it was time to change into our PJ's for the ice cream social. Immediately I was already falling in love with the festive and casual vibe of the conference. I wore Halloween themed PJ's and even brought my stuffed bear Licorice.

Saturday was busy with standing room only panels about vamps, witches and faeries. The readers had lots of great questions and I loved being on the elemental panel and sitting next to Joey W. Hill. The signing went well with many readers picking up the Pentacles of Magick series and the Pantheon anthology.

Saturday night was dinner and the masquerade party. Many attendees went all out with costumes and again the party was fabulous. Carol, a fantastic reader and aspiring author did an outstanding job as usual on her costume as Jane Austin, Vampire. She inspires me every conference with her creations.

Sunday we enjoyed a hearty breakfast (again, Stella did a great job with all aspects of the weekend and the meals were wonderful) while the tickets were drawn for the raffle baskets. Alas I did not win the Joey W. Hill or Mark Henry baskets I so desperately wanted, lots of folks took home incredible goodies.

The last panel of the weekend was a combination of the shifters and demon panels because we went over on time for the raffle but the casual semi circle of amazing authors was great. I'm always impressed with the beautiful and elegant Sunny, and Rosemary Laurey entertained readers with tidbits about a golden cock in one of her books.

My plans to tweet the event live got thwarted a few times by my stinky cellular provider when I kept getting error messages when I hit send. I still managed to get quite a few pics up over the weekend and you can see those on either my Twitter or Facebook page.

I'm already looking forward to next year and as soon as the official dates are announced, i'll be adding it to my "must attend" calendar. Will we see you next year? I sure hope so.

On a completely different note, in the last month i've had a new paranormal release. Obsession of Jayde from Loose Id. Here's the blurb:

When Jayde returns to Hickory Falls to settle her grandmother’s estate she finds a mystery and a destiny she's not sure she wants. It starts with an antique puzzle box with a necklace and a note that only says Beware of the Obsession. It also includes a bakery everyone is anxious to see reopened despite her inability to cook, and a pair of hunky, too-good-to-be-true tenants living in the same building.

Marc and Anthony are lovers waiting on their third to complete them, the Guardian they have sworn to protect. When Jayde finally arrives they are anxious to get her into their bed…until they see the necklace around her neck. It serves a powerful warning to them -- and to her if she knows what it means. Now they have to take things slow, seducing her before they reveal the duty she has been called for.

When the Guardian denies her calling, the protectors will do anything in their power to convince her, but in the end it has to be her choice. Free will is a bitch, but so is their obsession with Jayde.

Read more here

Take care,

Eliza

Enjoy!

Although I'm green with envy for everyone attending AAD I hope you have a fantastic time! I fully intend to try and make it next year :)

This year, however, I'm swamped with deadlines and trying to prepare for the release of Darkness Unleashed. It should be hitting the shelves on November 1st, although Barnes and Nobel are already shipping it. I have a booksigning at the Borders in DeKalb, IL on Nov. 7th starting at 5:00 PM if any happens to be in the area, I would love to have you stop by and just say hi. I'll also be doing some guest blogging and giving away copies of the book, so I hope you'll go to my web site and keep up on the action.

Oh, and I received the cover for Beyond the Darkness (Salvatore's story). It certainly has a werewolf vibe :)

Countdown: 5 days!

Yes...

Its almost here! Im getting last minute things in the mail from everyone, and finally packed my own stuff completely, and got the extra stuff done and packed as well. I try not to leave anything to chance.

For those of you attending, WOW, I really cant wait to see what you guys think of what we set up. Jacki and I have been wild with the last minute details, and making sure everything for the hotel is 5x5.

Everything jumps off at 3pm, registration starts rocking, and all the goodies start going out. I have decided Aud and I and the fam are staying at the hotel Thursday night, to start getting stuff done and out of the way. I gotta start bringing the stuff thats been living at my house for the past 9 months. Its like I'm giving birth, LOL.

Ooh and If you Twitter, we will be twittering from the event this year, as well as posting twit pics to get everyone's jealousy up. But dont worry, we will be doing an AWESOME contest in November for AAD09-10. So stay tuned.

Thats it from me, Im off to shower and get my ass to moving shit to the hotel. See you all on Friday!

AAD countdown! Who is excited!?

Ok. So we are literally DAYS from the event, and I'm a nervous wreck. I'm hoping the readers are going to have a good time, and if they don't it wont be from lack of trying. The amount of amazing promo that has been sent, as well as free books (especially from the amazing DORCHESTER) these readers are going him laden with amazing goodies! Coolers, t shirts, pocket mirrors, pens, candles, and books not only from Dorchester, but from Tease Publishing, Changeling Press, Linden Bay Romance and Kensington!

Audra will be here soon, and I'm excited to say shes doing well. Those of you going will get to meet her (like some of you did at RT 07) and She cant wait to meet everyone! Just a quick note: Audra and I look nothing alike except our nose. Hell my brother and I don't look much alike either. Actually I look more like my mothers sister then anyone.LOL.

So on the 15th we are having a free for all radio show for about an hour and a half, where the authors will be calling in, and hanging out in our chat room. It will be from 8pm to 930 on air, and another half hour in the chat room. You NEED to come and hangout, especially if your coming to AAD this year! Check it all out HERE

So I am on my way to AlbaCon tonight, Here's hoping Friday rocks this year. Im doing my promotional workshop, and a few panels and signing, so it should be fun. For those going, I will be signing Fire in His Eyes, Masquerade and London for the Holidays, and some of our older works.


So I will see everyone at AAD on the 23rd! Cant wait to meet everyone! Ooh and check back here on the 28th of October where we will tell you about the big AAD contest we are running in November!

Just Released, and a sweet chance to win!

JUST RELEASED: OF CRIMSON AND COLLARS (American Satyrs book 1)

A prince without a kingdom, and a princess without a master. A Satyr's passion knows no bounds.

As a princess of the Satyr confederation, Minerva has been coddled, spoiled and revered, as well as taught and trained just how to serve her Satyr. Beautiful, sexy and a prize in herself, she's anxious to meet the man that will become her lover, master, and reason for living.

Esben Chambers, a half demon, half something else orphan lives on earth with few cares or ties. His family partially unknown, he's embraced his Strigo, or time demon, heritage, though some of his powers are well out of the scope of the lords of time.

When an Imp shows up at his estate and claims he's the only living Satyr prince to clan Tempest, Ben realizes there might be something to figuring out just who his father's people were, and agrees to go to New York for a Convergence Summit. He's counting on figuring out why he was left alone in the world.

What he doesn't count on is the enchanting woman he sees in a floor show, the woman that makes his blood burn to possess her.


Audra and I are extremely excited to have this book out finally and love that it is with Total E Bound! To celebrate the release, we are giving away a fantastic gift basket! This gift basket contains a t shirt with the awesome cover on it, as well as a tote bag with the cover, a set of playing cards (cover on the top) a signed cover flat, other promo, print book OF READERS CHOICE and a one of a kind set of earrings created for the book release in sterling silver, fire opal, smoky quartz and crystal.

So how do you win? buy the book today, and email us (Stella@stellaandaudra.com) with the answer to this question: What is the name of the first girl in the book? You have until September 29th to get your entry in!

BUY NOW!

Details, details

Hi, all! This is my first post at the blog. Back in . . . oh, July-ish, the lovely Stella invited me to post here "whenever I had time." Hahaha!

So, here it is, nearly October, and I STILL don't have time. But I'm going to post anyway, because it's a very cool blog and I wanted to post at least once before someone shuts the door in my face after the Authors After Dark convention.


For the regulars here who don't know me, I'm Cathy Clamp and write paranormal romance and urban fantasy for Tor Books, along with my co-author C.T. Adams. You'll see that my screen name here is "Cat Adams" and that's because it's our NEW name for the same great books. It's just a little easier to find in the bookstore. We write the Tales of the Sazi and Thrall series and will be coming out with a brand new urban fantasy series called The Blood Singer next year. Cold Moon Rising is our latest book in the Sazi world, out last month, and next up, in March, 2010 is Serpent Moon, in the same world.



Our first book under the Cat Adams name was Magic's Design, which came out in March. It's a stand-alone novel, not part of a series, and if you like urban fantasy, you'll really enjoy it!


I've been spending a whole bunch of time working on details lately. Editing is mostly about details, in reality, and it forces you to really think about all those weird, esoteric things that you truly believed you made clear in a book, but which the editor firmly informs you that you didn't. This last month has been especially challenging because of all the projects that have had overlapping deadlines. Mostly, it's because I have a hard time saying no to really cool projects (I mean, how could you say no to an antho called Chicks in Capes?! This is a proposed cover by the way, one of two. Interestingly, they'll release BOTH covers, which is very fun!)

Little by little, I took on new projects. None of them were big, and I gave myself plenty of "room" to get them done. Or so I thought. But what wound up happening was this:

New Anthology story in existing reality due September 1st.
New Anthology story in NEW world due September 4th.
New Anthology story in ANOTHER new world due September 8th.
Non-fiction essay about favorite author due September 1st.
Second book of new urban fantasy world due September 1st.
New Proposal for new paranormal romance world due September 4th.

SHEESH! And then came . . .


Edits for Serpent Moon, due September 15th.
Copy edits for Serpent Moon, due September 28th (we had delays early.)
Edits for Anthology story #2, due pretty much immediately.
Edits for non-fiction essay, due September 10th.

And just arrived this week are . . .

Edits for Anthology story #3.
Finish up book Second book of new urban fantasy world (which we had to get extended---hmmm, I wonder why.)

As you might guess, even with a wonderful co-author who's taken on half the load, I'm getting a little twitchy. Each kind of writing (new or editing) has its own challenges and forces an author to 'shift gears' to a new mindset. But the back and forth between the various worlds and the various kinds of editing/writing has me either totally ignoring, or micromanaging, every other aspect of my life.

Take the Authors After Dark convention. I signed up and got my room, but OOPS! I forgot to . . . um, pay for the registration. [blush] Then, since I seldom get to New York, I decided it might be a good idea to make plans to meet with my agent and our brand new editor in Manhattan. So I booked an early morning flight and have been figuring out the details of arriving at New Jersey-Liberty, hopping over to Manhattan and then popping up to Suffern. Now, for those of you who are gasping and choking at the potential for those events in a single day, remember that I live in TEXAS, where it takes about an hour of driving, one way, just to get to the grocery store. Twenty minutes on the AirTrain from the airport? Pfft! Nothing. Another half hour of walking when I get to Penn Station? Easy. Then it's just a short hop back to Penn Station and an hour on the train to Suffern, a cab ride to the hotel and poof! Lots of missions accomplished!

Details, details. And speaking of which, I think I'm out of my micro-managed time to write this first post. Can't wait to meet you all next month---if I haven't keeled over by then. :D