Wednesday 3 July 2013

Young Adult Paranormal Adventure on Sale

HIDDEN
(Marchwood Vampire Series #1)

on sale this week


In this spellbinding novel, two teenagers living a century apart discover dangerous secrets that draw them into the past — and toward their destruction. The legend of the vampire has never been so gripping…


SALE PRICE: $0.99
$3.99
  75% off 
nds July 5th 2013 

Thursday 13 June 2013

BCS Short Story Competition

This week, I was lucky enough to read 24 short stories by the Years 7 and 8 pupils of BCS. I had been asked to judge them and award a first prize to the best, but I had no idea how hard it would be to choose. The standard was incredible and the genres were wide-ranging.
 
Anyway, I finally whittled it down to 8 Highly Commended entries from:
Dominic Farrow, Thomas Bourne, Poppaea Bramwell-Reeks, Daisy Stallard, Oliver Lande, Charlie Bates, Tomas Seville and James Downey.
 
My winner was Dani Poll with her perfectly formed short story Beacon of Hope about a homeless girl. It was beautifully written. Congratulations, Dani!
 
 
 
 


Friday 31 May 2013

Writing in a Digital Age - Guest Post from Laxmi Hariharan


It's The Literary Consultancy's conference next month,
so here's a timely guest post from indie author Laxmi Hariharan:
 
 
When Indie Met the Establishment!

Cut to twelve months ago—as a just born Indie, I listened to Kate Mosse (author Labyrinth) talk about how she was not on Facebook, Twitter or any of those necessary evils, which help Indie authors like myself build a platform. On a panel discussion she made it very clear that she preferred not to have her peace of mind destroyed by social media chatter, in order to really focus inwards and write. A fellow author confessed how she was beyond the point of being a social media junkie—she stayed connected even when she took her dog for a walk. It was clear to me that as a writer and a marketer I needed to find the sweet spot somewhere between the two. I needed to become a spider—a black widow?— an arachnid who sat square in the entre of a 720 degree social network web, and controlled everything that went around me, not the other way around.

It was about choice. I absolutely had the right to decide when I wanted to dip in and went I wanted to unplug. Isn’t that being an Indie author was all about.

Exercising your right to be read, to be seen and heard unadulterated by veils. Just one of the many insights I gained from attending the writing in a digital age conference, held by TLC. I will be back at the 2013 instalment of the same, as part of the storytime sessions, talking about where I am twelve months on—wiser, more confident, and in the throes of completing Return to 7 Islands (#2, Bombay Chronicles.) If you are wondering whether to go Indie or if you are Indie and pondering what next, then this is where you want to be. You will get the chance to meet fellow Indie’s as well as published authors, publishers, and agents too (some of them are really nice too J I promise.)

Writing in a Digital Age, June 7-8, London. Tickets on sale till June 6th.  Laxmi Hariharan is a content branding strategist and award winning author of epic fantasy. Find her at LAXMI writes

Tuesday 21 May 2013

New Sci Fi Dystopian Released Today

So episode 1 of the hubby's new book is out on Amazon today . . .

THE SPIRAL ARM (Episode 1, Season 1)
Wren Harper lives on an overcrowded Earth on the brink of apocalypse. There are just too many people. The answer lies 600 light-years away on Kepler; a planet more than double the size of Earth. For decades humans have been fighting another race for its control. Earth’s armies are depleted, so now 15-year-old cadets are sent to fight, trained along the way in vast combat ships. But why has Wren been chosen? She's small and geeky and not a fighter. Will she survive Kepler? Or will the training kill her first?


The Spiral Arm on Kindle US
The Spiral Arm on Kindle UK



Thursday 16 May 2013

YA Dystopian Sci-Fi Series - The Spiral Arm

I'm extremely excited and proud to announce a special cover reveal for a brand new YA dystopian sci-fi series called The Spiral Arm. And the reason I'm so excited is because it was written by Peter Boland my gorgeous and lovely husband!

Now I know I'm biased, but the story is A-Maz-Ing. Written in novella-length episodes, each one ends with a cliffhanger, kind of like your favourite TV series. Think Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones etc. Each mini season has three episodes and the first episode will be out this month.

Can't freaking wait!!

So here's the oh-so-stunning cover and book description:


Wren Harper lives on an overcrowded Earth on the brink of apocalypse. There are just too many people. The answer lies 600 light-years away on Kepler; a planet more than double the size of Earth. For decades humans have been fighting another race for its control. Earth’s armies are depleted. So now 15-year-old cadets are sent to fight, trained along the way in vast combat ships. But why has Wren been chosen? She's small and geeky and not a fighter. Will she survive Kepler? Or will the training kill her first?

If you'd like to be the first to know when The Spiral Arm will be released, sign up here:




And here's Pete's Facebook Page and Blog. He's new to it all so has no likes or followers yet (except me). If the series looks like your sort of thing, hop over to Facebook and say hello.
 
Hope you all love it. If any bloggers/reviewers would like a pre-release review copy, feel free to use the 'contact me' form above.


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Free Edit Worth $60/£40. And the winner is ...

... KIRK !! 

Congratulations! You've won an amazing 10,000 word edit
from Andrea at Express Editing Solutions.
If you use the 'contact me' form on her page, she'll get in touch with you. 

BUT WAIT!!! 

Andrea also sent me a message to say that she would like to offer a prize to everyone else who entered. Check it out, people, here's what she said:

I'd kind of like to offer everyone a little something if they don't mind it slotting into my schedule rather than me promising to do it straight away:

I would like to offer Farida a 10k content edit, because I know of the plight/plague of having stories that are so close to you and your wanting the validation of someone else's opinion. My author/publisher friend and I often discuss her characters as if they are totally real; it's like catching up with old friends!

I want to offer Ivan and Penelope 5k sample copy or content edits, whichever they would prefer.

Suzy I would like to have a chat with to find out what she WANTED from an editor that she didn't get with her last one to find out what I could offer her that would suit her needs.

Adrienne... I'd like to do a 'consult' with her, find out about the story and where I might be able to offer a little help.

And I'd also like to throw in an extra 10% off any paid services within the next 12 months. 

WOW! Thanks so much to Andrea for her incredibly generous offer. 

So to everyone who entered, if you use the 'contact me' form on her page,
she'll get in touch with you.

 Woohoo!!!