Rush for bookish prizes and exclusive content

YA/NA Scavenger Hunt: Rush Hunt is now on. Get exclusive content, including from my debut novel SLEEPER (out December 2). Check out Lola's Reviews for my Scavenger Hunt stop. Also there are awesome bookish prizes.

Kiya 2: Mother of a King - Release Day

Today is the day that the second book in the Kiya Trilogy releases; Kiya: Mother of a King.

You can find book one, Kiya: Hope of a Pharaoh HERE

To celebrate, Katie has opened up the comments on her blog for you to ask what you want to know about the series. And yes, book 3 is written and contracted so you will be seeing the final installment before you know it.

So, here is the details for Kiya book 2:

Amazon Kobo B&N Goodreads

Nefertiti has forced Naomi to flee

 Amarna with Malachi and the 

three children. But even under 

the protection of Naomi’s family 

in Thebes, Nefertiti still hunts her 

and Tut. Nefertiti sends assassins 

to kill them, and while Naomi 

fights to protect the children, 

Malachi fights to keep her safe.

With three children in tow, one 

of which isn’t her own, she is 

labeled the harlot outcast wife of the pharaoh and is 

shunned. She isn’t safe among her own people, and flees 

from being stoned to death. Although her family protects her, 

she must find a way to survive.

While Naomi struggles to keep herself and Tut alive, old 

adversaries return as Smenkhkare takes advantage of 

Akhenaten’s ailing health. Naomi must rely on Horemheb’s 

promise to protect Tut’s birthright, but her feelings for 

Malachi could cause more problems with Horemheb than she 

expects.



CQ is also hosting a giveaway for Kiya: Mother of a King on 

Goodreads! So jump in!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

KIYA

by Katie Hamstead

Giveaway ends November 20, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Fall for New Adult Campaign

Fall for the new New Adult: is a campaign to spread the word that New Adult is expanding into new and exciting categories like Historical, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gothic, and more! Follow along to find out why best-selling NA authors & NA bloggers are excited to see New Adult expand outside of contemporary.  And as an incentive to give the new NA a try, the Fall for New Adult bundle set will be available for a limited time. Set includes 4 great non-contemporary NA novels for only $3.99!

My Journey: When I first wrote SLEEPER, New Adult wasn’t the emerging category that it is today. This left me, and my manuscript in limbo. An agent asked me to make the MC, Mishca in high school so it was clearly YA (as college/university stories didn’t sell back then). But that would mean removing the plot point that sparked the whole novel in the first place: Mishca falling in love at first sight with her university professor. Workable with a university age MC, not with a high school aged MC.

So imagine my excitement when the New Adult Category started coming into it’s own. Books like LOSING IT, SLAMMED and EASY captured the hearts of the NA hipsters, but now it’s Genre’s turn to shine. Historical, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction and mash-ups in between are coming to the fore thanks to stories like Elsker and Apollo Academy.

SLEEPER will follow in a few weeks time, coming to an eReader near you on December 2, 2013.

Can’t wait until then to try out genre NA? Then you can purchase the Fall for New Adult bundle set here! 

The Fall For New Adult team want to know why YOU want to see NA expand too! Join the campaign by grabbing the gif. above and blogging/tweeting about why YOU want to see NA expand! #NACampaign

Cover Reavel: ENTRUSTED by Connie Ann Micheal

Thrust into a world of Native American legends about Skinwalkers and Ancient Ones, Emma Hunter finds herself in the middle of a battle for a heart holding great powers – A heart hidden within her.

Seventeen-year-old Emma wants what every teenage girl wants: a life that revolves around school, her friends, and a boyfriend who only has eyes for her. Little does she know that in order to get one, she must sacrifice the other two. After a series of events put into motion by Luke, the boy she thought loved her, Emma is kicked out of her group home and her school. Her best friend mysteriously vanishes and now she’s forced to move to a secluded coastal town, where she hopes to escape Luke’s obsessive control.  Instead, she finds her dreams invaded not only by Luke, but Solomon, a mysterious Native American warrior sent to protect her. 

But when Solomon shows up in her reality to explain he’s her protector, she soon learns that he’s so much more. As Emma struggles to understand what’s happening to her, she must also deal with her undeniable attraction to Solomon. Their connection is stronger than anything Emma has ever experienced before and now she must decide: can she trust him with her heart? And just how far will she go to protect it?

You can add Entrusted to your to-read list on Goodreads:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/18187423-entrusted

Information about the book:

Title: Entrusted

Author: Connie Ann Michael

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Release Date: 18 November, 2013

About the Author:

Connie Ann Michael was raised a city girl, but was converted to a country girl after college and now resides in a speck of a town in Central Washington State.  She is married to her former boss as she worked at the local Pizza place and has two college age boys that provide endless material for her books.  She loves the outdoors and can be found mountain biking, kayaking, or camping with her family.  Being a busy family, she can be found working on her newest novel while on long road trips.

You can find and contact Connie Ann Michael here:

- Website

- Facebook 

- Twitter

- Google +

- Goodreads

12 Days of Halloween

From about mid-October until Christmas was always a magical and much anticipated time when I was young.

Probably not an uncommon statement from a kid. My mom should have been a party planner, because our house was always decked out for the season. We were the house that people do that double-take with, because looking only once wasn’t enough to take it all in.

Mom’s favorite holiday was Halloween. Since I’m a fantasy/paranormal writer, it’s safe to say that rubbed off on me, and with kids of my own, I enjoy Halloween in a completely new way, with my kids excitement about dressing up and their enjoyment in the *fun* scares.

While her favorite might have been Halloween, Mom excelled in overall holiday planning. My mom was a generous lady. She never liked cooking, but she loved to bake the holiday pies and cookies and other goodies that come with the season, and everyone who knew us came away during the holiday season with loads of culinary delights. If you ask me to name my favorite food ever, it would have to be Mom’s pumpkin pie.

It’s probably because this time was usually so joyous that one memory sits there, lumpy and misshapen and not a fit with the rest.

Don’t ask me how old I was, but I came down the stairs one night – going to get some water I think – and Mom was on the couch, staring at the Christmas tree. The packages weren’t under the tree yet, which was odd since Mom tended to put them under as soon as the tree went up (Mom is not a last minute shopper – in fact, I’m pretty sure her shopping is done in July.) Now I haven’t believed in Santa ever, so it was no question in my mind about who presents come from.

What set this memory in my mind so sharply was my mother’s face the few moments before she realized I was in the room. At the time I didn’t have the words or the emotional knowledge to name what emotions were in play. All I knew was it wasn’t good.

Several years later we were talking, and in the way of conversations everywhere, somehow that night came up, and I asked Mom what was going on.

She confided that when I saw her, the reality of our situation was none of us kids were going to get Christmas presents. It had been a bad year with lots of doctor bills and not as much work as they hoped to get. Maybe they would be able to get a practical clothing item, but certainly nothing beyond that. Then she told me that a couple days after I saw her that night, her uncle heard about our situation. Without her or my dad asking, he went out and got presents for us kids and told her that it was his early Christmas gift to her and he would not accept any money or repayment.

Mom told me she cried while she wrapped them. She told me it was the best gift she’d ever gotten.

While my childhood would never fit in a Dickinson narrative, there were a few years there where we did with minimal, so hearing after-the-fact that no presents was a possibility didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the lurch in my chest at the thought of it as a near reality. That didn’t make sense – after all, we were several years past by then, and I was a grown person who understood economic realities.

That lurch, though, was real. And as time has marched on, I think I understand the reason for it, just like now that I’m a mother I understand the look on my mother’s face that night. The holidays were a safe and sacred time. The rest of the year – okay, it’s life, and life happened. But in my memory, the holidays were apart from that, not touched with the ickiness that could happen at other times.

If I didn’t get presents that year, I think that safety and warmth that the holidays (or the thought of) always caused would have disappeared. I wouldn’t have had that protective bubble anymore that helped get me through bad times, and the loss of that would have been a greater tragedy than not getting a doll under the tree.

So while Toys for Tots was not responsible for me getting presents that year, I recognize in a deep and personal way the very good work they are doing.

Toys for Tots is my favorite holiday charity. There are many excellent charities I celebrate and give to, but this time of year my thoughts and my wishes are for the kids who are not in the best circumstances and are in danger of not having a gift under their own tree. It’s not the material item that matters (though it’s always nice to get a great gift, right?) What I never want them to lose is that safe warmth that should categorize the holidays, a warmth that sometimes might be the only thing that gets them through the rest of the year.

Which leads me to the 12 Days of Halloween!

12 Days of Halloween is my (and many other excellent authors) way of having a great time and celebrating the beginning of this wondrous time of year – with giveaways and gifts and raising money for Toys for Tots!

What is involved?

First! My novel Stone Guardian  is on a very special sale. From now until Halloween, it is half-off with part of the proceeds going to Toys for Tots! So you get a book for cheaper than usual, and a chunk of the money will be going to an amazing cause! Huzzah!

And on the other side, I’ll be sharing lots of giveaways! Ebooks (donated by many generous authors) gift cards, swag sets, a Coach (!) bag, and finally…

An iPad Mini!

Yes, you read that right – an iPad mini with a special Entwined Realms designed cover set is the grand prize.

So if you are interested, please keep up with me at twitter or facebook or my blog with all the ways to win.

Let’s celebrate the beginning to this great time of year, have a great party, maybe win some stuff, and most important of all – support Toys for Tots and make sure they can help a lot of kids this year!