Queens of Wings & Storms: a limited edition fantasy and urban fantasy collection has just published in time for the holidays. I have a story in there, a tale of a girl who dies and comes back with the ability to travel both ways between the gates of life and death. My contribution is called The Gates Between, and the solo cover was done by the great Lou Harper of Cover Affairs.

To celebrate publication, the authors of the stories included are doing a terrific Dragon-themed giveaway.  Check it out:

In celebration of our new release, Queens of Wings and Storms, welcome to the Ultimate Dragon Loot giveaway!

Follow 11 urban fantasy & paranormal romance USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors on Amazon and BookBub for a chance to win an amazing prize pack valued at $360!

You could win a $150 Amazon gift card, a Dragon treasure box full of jewelry and coins (valued at $150), and four best-selling urban fantasy and paranormal romance hard copy books (valued at $60), two signed by Sherrilyn Kenyon! Additionally, several of the participating authors are throwing in their own swag!

Gain points for each entry you follow. The more points you get, the greater your chance at winning! Subscribe to each author's newsletter for even more points!

Whoever has the most points at the end of the giveaway wins. In the case of a tie or multiple participants having the maximum amount of points, the names will be entered into miniwebtool.com/random-picker/ for the winner.

ENTER HERE: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/457e17b02/

Happy New Release of the Queens of Wings and Storms box set!

**OPEN TO US RESIDENTS ONLY**

Prizes come with:

$150 Amazon gift card.

Dragon treasure box includes a dragon box, dragony coins, dangly earrings, 2 necklaces, 3 bracelets, 2 rings. (Note: jewelry and coins are not gold or silver weight, but are lead and nickel free)

Hard copy books include Archangel’s War trade paperback by Nalini Singh, Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews, and 2 signed Sherrilyn Kenyon Deadman’s Cross hardbacks.

The runner up will receive a $20 Amazon gift card!

Giveaway runs November 16th (midnight Eastern Time) - December 2nd (midnight Eastern Time)

**OPEN TO US RESIDENTS ONLY**

The Season Begins

It's Thanksgiving--and I have much to be thankful for this year. Last year at this time, my landlord had just told me he was going to move his mother into the house I'd been renting for four years, and suggested strongly that he would LOVE it, if I  could be out by the first of December. I managed to do that with a LOT of help, and now live in a place that's much more comfortable and half as much. So win/win on that. Christmas this year is going to be a lot more festive but also mellower. I love the season, and have already put up my Christmas trees. Aren't they jolly? I hope this season of winter holidays finds you safe and warm and loved.

something Urban Fantastic This Way Comes

Urban fantasy is probably my favorite genre--ever since I first stumbled across Laurell K. Hamilton. And I'm really looking forward to the release of Doctor Sleep, which I'd call more urban fantasy than horror. It's always great news when a new UF series debuts, especially when it comes from a writer like Rebecca Hamilton and her co-author Miranda Brock.

The Cursed Key is now available as a pre-order for only 99 cents. Order it now and it'll be a nice surprise when it releases in January. 
Here's the blurb:

A forgotten past, a dark mage, and an unyielding curse.

Another team beat free-spirited archaeologist Olivia Perez to the dig of a lifetime, and now she’s left with the choice to wait for scraps or brave a dangerous, dusty tomb in hopes of finding other priceless artifacts. Her reward? A mysterious key she has no idea is cursed. Soon, Olivia realizes she’s brought home more than just an ancient rarity.

Malevolent visions begin to plague her. Unnerved by what they reveal, she casts away the key…unknowingly placing it into the waiting hands of a dark mage bent on destruction. Only when a shifter agent from the Paranormal Intelligence and Tracking Organization arrives searching for the key does Olivia realize what a huge mistake she’s made.

THREE MORE WEEKS TO PRE-ORDER!!

This boxed set is one I've been working on since February. My novella, "The Poisoined Cup" is part of the collection.  Right now it's only 99 cents to pre-order. So ACT NOW as they say.
Here's the universal link.

Review of Pretty Little Gun by R.C. Barnes

Every tattoo tells a story and sixteen-year-old Bess Wynters can read those stories—the ones on the surface and the ones that are below the skin—just by touching them. It’s a talent that would get her labeled a freak if people knew what she could do, so even her mother, legendary tattoo designer Terry Wynters, doesn’t know the whole story.
This short read is an introduction to the world of Barnes’ upcoming novel, Ink for the Beloved, and it will pique the interest of anyone who has despaired at the mountains of same/old same/old YA books and their supernatural heroines. Brown-skinned Bess is refreshingly original and wise beyond her years. She sees it all, but she doesn’t share all that she sees and that’s a burden she carries alone. Her world is something different too. For one thing, there’s only one male character in this story and he’s not a love interest. Barnes teases us with a mention of a “Ink for the Beloved” ritual Terry Wynters has invented and we want to know what that is all about. In fact, we want to know more about everyone and everything we’ve encountered in this story. Barnes’ “The Tattoo Teller” series debuts later this month with Ink for the Beloved. Put it on your TBR list.

Find Pretty Little Gun here

Playing with Fire!

Love is patient, love is kind, even those doomed by what is forbidden let love be their salvation in the Playing with Fire Boxset -

On pre-order for 99c + 14 free reads for you today!

https://www.subscribepage.com/playingwithfireboxsedpromotion

#99c #romance #mustread #pnr #UF #darkfantasy

Excerpt from The Poisoned Cup

We're just weeks from the release of the Playing With Fire boxed set (so excited). To get you in the mood (you HAVE pre-ordered it, haven't you?), here's the prologue to "the Poisoned Cup," my modern-day retelling of the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot:

In the end, people blamed me for the fall of Camelot and the end of the British monarchy. As if one woman could do in a thousand days what a thousand years of war, murder. Family feuds, and anti-royalist sentiment could not. Those who blamed me conveniently forgot that when Arthur took the throne, he inherited a kingdom already in disarray. The Brexit mess had weakened the economy, fractured the United Kingdom, and left his subjects demoralized and unhappy. They needed a scapegoat, and they chose me for the role.

It wasn’t even personal.

Royals have traditionally been a focus for “civilian” discontent, and in many cases, understandably so. Royals were rich, after all, and therefore had no idea what it was like to live paycheck to paycheck or work more than one job just to be able to afford the basic necessities.

It grated on the public when a royal—usually some dotty dowager duchess—was praised for being “hard-working” when the work involved was mostly smiling pleasantly while listening to a boring speech about some issue of little practical concern to anyone outside the room. After all, no one wants to hear the extinction of the skylark when their own jobs are in danger of disappearing even sooner.

And it didn’t help that the royals were always so ubiquitously on display, with the press and the bloggers feverishly covering their every move, recording their every utterance, and memorializing their every fashion faux pas. And even then, in the face of nearly universal mockery, it took forever for the “fascinator” fad to die. I never could understand how a grown woman could wear something that looked like a toddler had made it out of pipe cleaners and keep a straight face. Or those silly flat hats that are tilted at such an acute angle that they looked like tiny alien spaceships had just landed on the royal coif.

Playing With Fire--new over reveal!!

Check out the new cover for the Playing With Fire boxed set--Fifteen novels and novellas from award-winning writers and me!!! This new cover is bold and badass, and I'm very happy with it.

Dig into hours of forbidden love, lust, and heat as these heroes and heroines long for their beloveds, break taboos, and fight for the ones they never should have chosen—but could never resist.
99 cents on pre-order + free gifts  Click here..

New Reader Giveaway

This one ends in a few days!  You don't want to miss it!
READER GIVEAWAY 
If you are into the all consuming, thrilling and heart wrenching paranormal romance read! Then this is the giveaway for you!
Win 4 of your choice from these epic reads from #1 NYT bestselling author Jennifer L Armentrout , sponsored by Playing with fire Boxset authors!
https://www.subscribepage.com/readergiveawayPWF

Summer Solstice Boxed Set is here!

Fill yourself with the heat of summer with these paranormal and fantasy reads.

From shifters to goddesses, vampires to aliens, there's something for everyone within these pages. Look no further for sizzling romances and thrilling adventures that are bound to leave you desperate for a cool down.

Featuring stories by:

USA Today & International Bestselling Author Nicole Morgan

USA Today & International Bestselling Author Laura Greenwood

USA Today Bestselling Author Laurie Treacy

USA Today Bestselling Author Candace Sams

USA Today Bestselling Author, Two-time EPIC award winner, Amazon Bestselling Author Lesli Richardson

Award winning, IPPY Gold Medal Winner, and Amazon Bestselling Author Nikki Landis

Author Kat Parrish

Author Ashlee Nicole Bye

International Bestselling Author Krista Ames

International Bestselling Author Deelylah Mullin

Bestselling Author Elana Brooks

Award Winning Author Brenda Sparks

Author Katherine Kingston

Pre-order your copy today!

UNIVERSAL LINK:

https://books2read.com/rcsummersolstice

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PXBW3JY/

Nook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1130534155?ean=2940161172544

iBooks:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/summer-solstice/id1451906944?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/summer-solstice-11

Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline...An anthology of Fairy Tale Retellings

I m very fond of fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, and World Weaver Press just put up a new one for pre-order. Called Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline, the collection of dieselpunk and decopunk tales was edited by Rhonda Parrish. (No relation, as far as I know.) This is the first in a new series Parrish will be editing for World Weaver called "Punked Up Fairy Tales."

I am fascinated by all the varieties of "punk," from solar punk to clock punk to atomic punk, and beyond but I'd never heard of "Decopunk," but it's helpfully defined on the site.

Just the titles of the stories are evocative One that caught my eye was "Steel Dragons of a Luminous Sky" by Brian Trent. I am a longtime fan of Brian's work and can't wait to see what he's done here.

Wendy Nikel's "Things Forgotten on the Cliffs of Avevig' is another tale I can't wait to read. Yu can preorder the book on the World Weaver Press site or at your favorite digital retailer.

Remembering Sandra Seamans

I knew Sandra Seamans, but I didn't know her. It's amazing the impact a person can have on your life when you never meet them in real life. I wish I had met her in real life because in our email exchanges and online interactions, she was warm, supportive, and encouraging. When I was first starting to write fiction she introduced me to everybody, hosting my blog by adding it to her blogroll. And when Joy Sillesen, Joanne Renaud, and I started Dark Valentine Magazine, she became a

contributor, which helped give us street cred as a fiction site and also helped us spread the word. I am really sorry that Dark Valentine is no longer archived because she wrote some great stories for us, including "Abiding Guilt," about a widower escaping from a nursing home. He misses Gloria. He misses sex. And the nurses at his facility have confiscated his phone after finding out he's been calling 1-900 numbers.

I was a daily visitor to her site My Little Corner, looking for places to send my work. I'd sometimes sent her tips when I found markets on my own that she hadn't highlighted. She always gave me a hat tip and I was always pleased because I'd been able to give her something in return for the many tips she gave me. (I sold one or two stories to markets she'd listed over the years.)  I also liked reading the occasional story she posted and sought her fiction out on other sites. Here's a link to the short stories she wrote for Shotgun Honey.