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**

Seven Shifter Stories!

The first book in Pure Textuality's Summer of the Supernaturals has landed:  Shifters in the Shadows, curated by Jena Gregoire and Brandy Dorsch. It's a sampler pack of all kinds of shifters--yes, there are werewolves (including my own The Howl), but there are whole worlds of paranormal creatures here--vampires, and witches, and mountain lions and panthers. And dragons. There are also dragons in the story that anchors the collection.

Wicked Desire by Brandy Dorsch (Hunger Mates, Book 2)--The story that leads this collection offers a strong, if conflicted, heroine and a little reverse-harem action with the two sexy werewolves who want her as their mate. Throw in some nice world-building that includes were and vampire protocol, and Wicked Desire is the perfect story to set the mood. Even better, if you love it (and you will), there are other books in the series. Find more of her work here.

One Wounded Wolf  by Nicole Zoltack--Set in Bethlehem, PA (where the author lives), this is a story of a town overrun by all sorts of supernatural creatures, from sirens to djinn, and an immortal werewolf that drinks blood. The narrator muses on the relative strength of vampires versus werewolves and concludes that, "They have fangs and so do we!"  Find more of her work here.

Are Gargoyles the New Vampires?

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That's what I'm hearing. The next "thing" in paranormal fantasy/romance is going to be gargoyles. I'm okay with that. I really liked Anton Strout's Alchemystic (A Spellmason Chronicle) and its sequels. I also am a HUGE fan of Strout's Simon Canderous novels. They're really first rate urban fantasy.

It really is time for something new and different in the paranormal world. I don't mind vampires--there's something primal about the whole vampire thing and I get it. But I've never been that crazy abotu werewolves, and when the whole "shifter" sub-genre exploded a few years ago--dragon shifters, bear shifters, dinosaur shifters--I was somewhat bemused. No one ever seems to get the whole thing about how an average sized woman can't transform into a cat without losing some mass in there somewhere.

I'm really curious to know what writers will come up with. And meanwhile--thank you Goodreads--there's this list of nearly 50 books featuring gargoyles in urban fantasy and paranormal romance.