Category: giveaways

Giveaways, Contests & Prizes Update

Call it what you want, I love giving out prizes to my readers. So in the spirit of doing it more often I’ve begun my character reviews where I critique another author’s character and give that book to a reader. I think it’s going well so far, though I haven’t had a huge response, I’m happy with the new followers I have now (thank you!). However, I do need to make a couple of adjustments already.

First of all, I’d originally posted on Sunday and drew a name on Wednesday. I thought that would give everyone plenty of time to read the post and comment on it. Well that takes up half a week and cuts down on my posting. I prefer to post a couple times a week rather than have one on top of another. Therefore, the critiques will now be posted on Mondays and I’ll draw the winner Tuesday evening. That’s still over twenty-four hours for everyone to get their comments in, and I won’t feel like I’m covering up the character critiques with other posts. 

Second, even though I just got this thing off the ground in April, I will not be doing it in June. Don’t worry, the characters for May have already been chosen and the full list is available on my site. However, in June I will once again be doing my Birthday Blog Tour. I’m setting up dates and already have quite a few. I will be giving prizes on every single stop and don’t want to overload myself. I promise to have the full schedule listed here on the blog and on my site by the last week of May.

That being said, I’ll need suggestions for July character reviews. So far I’ve only done romance genres but I am a very eclectic reader. I also have an extra copy of Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I hadn’t put it on the schedule because both copies are used and I can’t decide if either is good enough for a giveaway. Does anyone mind pages marked on the edge in marker where I crossed out a name? Plus I really love historical fiction. I don’t have any giveaway copies yet, but I am an avid book buyer 😉

That’s everything for now. If you have any suggestions for character reviews, guest blog posts for my blog tour or anything else, feel free to comment below.

Character Review #2: Dark Ones

Welcome to my second character review. I hope you enjoyed last week’s post about Carpathians. This week I’m talking about a different but similar type of character known as a Moravian Dark One. Who are these mysterious men that share blood-sucking tendencies with a plethora of other characters in fiction? They are Katie MacAlister‘s take on the vampire, and they are hot, hot, hot! For this giveaway I’m offering Zen and the Art of Vampires. It’s not the first of the series, but it does start a story of it’s own with human character Pia Thomason. As usual, it can be read as a stand-alone novel.

So, what do I like and dislike about the Dark Ones? Firstly, they’re very close to the traditional ideal of a vampire: soulless, bloodsucking, night-roaming men searching for that one special woman who can redeem them. Okay…maybe not entirely. I’ve enjoyed Katie MacAlister’s books for a few years now. Her historicals, contemporaries and other paranormal novels usually have me crying from laughing at the messes her quirky heroines always get stuck in. She keeps that same vein in the ladies of the Dark Ones novels. For the men, the actual vampires, she adds mystery and an alpha streak that is close to believable. Her Dark Ones are not chest-beating, male-chauvinistic characters (well…not all of them). They use logic and valid arguments to woo their “Beloveds”, even the non-human ones. Overall, I’ve enjoyed all of the Dark Ones novels. I can’t say they are my all -time favorite vampires, but they’re definitely worth a read.

Have you read any of the Dark Ones novels? What did you think? Are they your ideal of a good, romantic vampire? Comment below and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Zen and the Art of Vampires. Please include your email address. The winner will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck!

Character Review #1: Christine Feehan’s Carpathians

For my first character review (which will hopefully be an ongoing blog feature) I’ve decided to review a set of characters that all have very similar characteristics: Christine Feehan’s Carpathian males. If you’re not familiar with this ongoing series you can find out all about it here. At the moment it’s a 21 book series that has a HUGE following, and rightly so. I honestly enjoyed the first dozen or so books of this series. Unfortunately I’m the type of reader that gets burnt out on a series of this size. I’m struggling to stay faithful to Anita Blake at the moment as well. So, I own about half of the Dark books, but have read more by borrowing from a friend and the library.

What do I think of the Carpathian males? Well, first and foremost, where can I get one?! These fiercely loyal men are HOT,HOT,HOT! Every one of them is a study in masculine perfection of the physical form (well, duh). They’re tall and gorgeous, some dark, some light and ALL alpha male. To be completely honest, I wouldn’t mind having a man who could toss a small car, with an overprotective streak ten miles long, wanting to pamper me and set me on a pedestal. My biggest beef with this series is how many of the female characters get angry at them for these inherent characteristics. I’m all for women’s rights but can easily put them aside for a little pampering. I mean really, is it so hard to let the man take over where your life is being threatened? No. So, overall these men are strong, fight vampires and whatever else threatens their lifemates, friends and families, and are nigh indestructible. They can turn into mist, sleep in the healing earth of the Carpathian Mountains and prefer blood to beer. What’s not to like?

The Carpathians are not exactly vampires because vampires are evil, former Carpathian males who resorted to killing their prey. Carpathians do drink blood but don’t kill innocents. They exist in a muted world of black and white, with no emotions until they meet their lifemates for the first time. Once they meet their lifemates, they hate to be separated from them for any length of time, which really pisses off a lot of the women. Their female lifemates can be converted into Carpathians, however, reproduction is a problem that hadn’t been solved by the time I stopped reading the series. They were working on it though. There are humans who know all about them and work with them in some way. They have enemies in both evil vampires and humans. They live all over the globe.

That is the Carpathians in a nutshell. I did enjoy most of the books, but became burnt out and found it hard to keep reading. I still have a couple on my TBR shelf. One of them, that I did in fact read, is Dark Possession (#18). It’s a good story that can be read alone, though the information about will also explain a lot. The copy I’m giving away was read once and is in very good condition. Do you want it? Just post a comment below, either with your own opinion on the Carpathians or just to say hi, and you’re entered to win. I’ll draw a winner on Wednesday, April 6th.
Good luck!

Where My Royalties Go

My husband likes to tell people I’m his 401K plan. In his mind I will one day have a book (or two or three) on the New York Times best sellers list, a screenplay in the theaters and royalties rolling in faster than we can spend them. Yes, he does live in a dream world. That’s okay, I let him. Why spoil his fun? The truth is I didn’t get into writing, nor do I currently write, to make money. The royalties are nice and certainly help. However, my goal to become a published author was never about how much money I could make in doing so. I write because I enjoy sharing the craziness in my imagination with others. The voices in my head truly do make me write their stories.

Now, that being said, I do still enjoy receiving royalties for my published work and don’t appreciate online pirates who choose to share that work without my permission. I also enjoy creating free stories that I share with readers in various spots around the web. One such place is a new blogging venture I’ve joined in with other published romance authors, known as the Truly, Madly, Deeply Romance blog. My contribution, a short story titled Into the Ocean, will be available on Saturday, March 19th. Readers who leave a comment will also have the chance to win a prize from me. And this is where my royalties come into play. I LOVE giving away prizes to readers. I honestly, truly do. However, I have to be realistic about my budget and can’t give away as much as I would like. Therefore, I limit myself to spending ONLY royalties on reader prizes. So, if I sell a ton of books one month the prizes get better and there are more of them.

March is looking like a great month for my readers. I’ll be adding to my prize pack pickings and hopping onto a couple of blogs as a guest. Each time I make an appearance around the web I plan to give away a prize. Also, I plan to do my Birthday Blog tour again this year in June (my birthday month). Hopefully it will be as much fun as last year’s turned out to be. So, are there any prize ideas you’ve received or seen from other authors that you would like to suggest? I’m taking notes and adding to the pile.