Posts Tagged ‘paranormal’
Me and Alex Adsett – super agent
I haven’t posted for a long time, and one of the reasons is after advice from my brilliant agent, Alex Adsett, I became a bit of a writing hermit (when I wasn’t doing family stuff, working or doing presidential things for Romance Writers of Australia!) and was concentrating on finishing the Witch-Were Chronicles so we could go out with them and try to get a publisher as interested in these stories as we are.
And guess what? After a year and a half of hard work, writing my writerly fingers to the bone and wearing out a computer (and frustrating my family when I wouldn’t answer them as I was too caught up in my characters and their problems 😉 ), the wonderful Kate Cuthbert at Harlequin Escape, proved to be just as interested as Alex and I are in this world of Were, Witches, Shifters, powers gone wrong, curses and a prophecy that could destroy them all.
I now have a 4 book contract with Harlequin Escape for the Witch-Were Chronicles – so, really, hard work and being a writing hermit truly does pay off!
You can see Alex’s post announcing this exciting news here:
Or simply read what she said about the sale here:
AAPS is excited to announce that the amazing Leisl Leighton has signed with Harlequin Escape to publish The Witch-Were Chronicles. This four-book series is paranormal romance at its best – brilliant world building, strong heroines, and sexy heroes, with ancient curses haunting the werewolf packs of modern Australia.
Leisl is the much-loved president of the Romance Writers of Australia, and has previously published two titles with Penguin Destiny.
Escape will publish all four books of The Witch-Were Chronicles later this year as a digital box set. This means that Leisl’s fans and new followers can binge-read the whole series in one go – no waiting.
Harlequin Escape is the digital-first imprint of Harlequin Australia, and this represents AAPS’ first official sale to the Escape imprint.
I am really excited that these books, tentatively titled, Witch, Healer, Blood and Ghost, will finally go out to readers later this year and hope that everyone will fall in love with my Witches, Weres and Shifters as much as Alex, Kate and I have.
Happy reading everyone and stay tuned for more news on the Witch-Were Chronicles – I will share publication dates, covers etc as they come to light.
I’m really pleased to have Daniel DeLorne back to guest here today. After working with Dan on the RWA committee (he is my VP and one of our Hearts Talk Editors) I have come to call him SuperDan. He can pretty much do anything I throw at him and do it better than I expected. I’m not quite certain why I keep being surprised – maybe I just like to be surprised.
Anyway, Dan is here to talk to us today about his new novel, Burning Blood, the sequel to his dark and tortured (and amazing) first novel, Beckoning Blood. Take it away Dan.
Burning Blood, Sisters and Sequels.
Thanks for having me as a guest again, Leisl.
For those of you who haven’t read the first book in the series, Beckoning Blood is a gruesome romantic horror that focuses on the lives of gay twin vampires, Olivier and Thierry, as they slash and burn their way through the centuries.
The sequel, however, was my chance to explore the other side of the d’Arjou family. After people read Beckoning Blood, I heard them say they wanted to know about Aurelia as she played an important part in the plot of the first book, without getting much air-time.
I always knew she’d have a big role in the overall story arc but when I began writing Burning Blood, 
I didn’t realise how much was going on with her.
Initially I was trying to wrap everything up in the second book but as my first and second attempt at this story broke beneath the enormity of what I was trying to do (this is a good advertisement for plotting over pantsing), I realised I had to give her the space to tell her story. And that’s what Burning Blood is.
The book goes through the same three timeframes that Olivier and Thierry went through in the first book, that is, Carcassonne in the Middle Ages, Saxony in the late 1700s, and the present day. While the brothers make brief appearances, this isn’t their book. This might be a relief for some readers who want a break from the blood and violence of Beckoning Blood.
We watch Aurelia’s struggle through the centuries, her battle with Henri, the head of the d’Arjou family. We see her trauma and experience her attempt to find some happiness while under extreme pressure. Thankfully, she has a friend in Hame, a red-haired oracle who helps relieve some of the burdens she has to bear…until Carn enters the scene.
I don’t want to give too much a way but readers can expect an epic story where what we want and what we get aren’t always the same thing, and how family traumas leave deep scars. But as always, there’s hope for a better life.
To celebrate the launch of Burning Blood, I’m running a giveaway where you can win a Wild Wood Tarot Deck and both of my books. Just visit my website to enter.
Burning Blood (Bonds of Blood: Book 2)
No one gets to choose who they spend eternity with.
Aurelia d’Arjou has vampires for brothers, but it is as a witch that she comes into her own power, keeping balance and control, using her strength to mitigate the death and pain that her brothers bring. When she is forced to take on the centuries long task of keeping the world safe from the brutal demon that wore her father’s skin, duty dominates her life. But rare happiness comes in the form of a beguiling, flame-haired oracle who makes the perfect companion…but for one thing.
Hame doesn’t want to be an oracle, but when a demon destroys the closest thing to a father he has, he has little choice but to aid Aurelia with his visions. Unable to love her as she would wish, their centuries-old friendship comes under attack when a handsome Welsh witch enters his life – and his heart.
As treachery and betrayal push Hame to choose between his closest friend and his lover, it becomes clear that when it comes to war, love doesn’t always conquer all, and happy endings are never guaranteed.
Read an excerpt or order now from Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook | GooglePlay.
Daniel de Lorne writes dark tales of ruin, romance and redemption. His debut novel, Beckoning Blood, came out in May 2014. You can find out more about him on his website (you can also get a free short story), Facebook and Twitter.
I’m over on Darkside Downunder today featured in their Magic Thursday blog talking about what I love about being creative and how it works for me in my writing and acting and how that affected how Dark Moon became a Paranormal Romance. I’d love you to visit and comment and let me know what in your life is magic for you.
I was going to write a great and insightful piece on what I love about writing descriptions, but once again the brilliant Kristen Lamb has beaten me to it and has really hit the nail on the head.
I bow down in awe and wonder and freely put on my padawan hair tail once more – although, I don’t think I ever took it off, still being firmly in the learning process of this writing thing I do. I’m in the process of writing a new romantic suspense and re-editing Healer Moon and Seer’s Blood, so I will most definitely be keeping this in mind while doing that. No, ‘her black hair hung around her face’, or ‘she sat on the green chair in the corner’ for me. I will endeavour to be far more clever than that (note, I said endeavour. Perfection is a long long way away!)
I hope you enjoy her blog on descriptions as much as I did and get a huge amount out of it. If you get even a little inspiration and learn something, then my job here is done. 🙂
Today it’s my pleasure to do a blog swap with fellow RWA author and paranormal romance lover, Nicole Murphy. While she is multi-published, I thought it would be interesting to hear a little about her call story with a twist. Take it away, Nicole.
My call story – I never got a phone call.
Whenever I read other people’s call stories, I have a moment of searing jealousy because I never actually got ‘the call’. I wasn’t delivered the news over the phone, but via email. And not because I was signing with an American publisher either. Nope, my publihser was here in Australia, and someone I knew from attending science fiction conventions.
This all happened way back in 2009. I’ve blogged about it here. The fact I didn’t get the phone call didn’t, I thought, take away anything from that moment.
Until earlier this year. The wonderful Kate Cuthbert from Escape Publishing had asked me to write her a science fiction romance. SF romance is selling well at the moment, and Kate (having read my urban fantasy romance Dream of Asarlai trilogy) thought I could do a good job of writing one. In one of those serendipitous moments, I’d actually just picked up an abandoned sf romance manuscript, having finally worked out what was wrong with it.
So I finished it, polished it and sent it to Kate, letting her know if she liked it, I had plans for a second book. Then January 6 I get an email from her – ‘Can I call you about the science fiction romance?’
Being a writer, and thus easily able to imagine the worst in a situation (because that’s what we do – make lives hell for our characters then have them work it out), I decided the reason Kate wanted to call me was that she hated the book, but because she had specifically asked me to write it she couldn’t tell me that via email.
I said sure and Kate called later that day. It just so happened that the moment she called, two of my friends arrived to pick me up for our annual two-week writing retreat.
I smiled grimly at them then shoed them away while I braced myself for Kate to deliver the bad news.
“First, I loved it,” she said. “Now, how many books were you planning on writing in this world?”
I was stunned. “I told you about the second.”
“Yes, right, but there’s other characters. Hera for example. And Plissa.”
My little writer brain started to whirr. “Oooh, Plissa would be interesting.”
‘That’s it then. Write that book and we’ll buy it. All three.”
I hung up the phone, kinda stumbled into the loungeroom where my friends were chatting to my husband and said, “I just sold a trilogy.”
Done. Just like that, the Jorda series existed. And I finally got to experience that moment of standing on the other end of a phone, listening to someone deliver you news you’re always dreamed of. Doesn’t matter that it wasn’t my first. I think when I sell my 50th book (please, let this keep going so I do that) I’ll be just as excited. I think the moment I’m no longer excited to hear I’ve sold a book is the day I should quit writing.
So that was the rest of this year sorted. I’ve been flat-chat ever since. The second book I’d planned wasn’t written, let alone the third book that didn’t exist even in potential until that conversation in January.
The first book, Loving the Prince, is out August 1. If you want to get an idea what it might be like, why don’t you read the books that convinced Kate I could do it – the Dream of Asarlai trilogy.
You can buy the Dream of Asarlai omnibus now from
About Nicole
Nicole Murphy is the author of the Dream of Asarlai trilogy, published by HarperCollins (re-launched as an electronic omnibus in April), and a couple dozen speculative fiction shorts. Her science fiction romance trilogy, the Jorda series, will be released by Escape Publishing in 2014/2015. As Elizabeth Dunk she’s published contemporary romance with Escape Publishing and in July will be releasing a collection of paranormal erotic novellas, also with Escape.
Find out more about Nicole/Elizabeth at her website – http://nicolermurphy.com or follow her on Twitter (@nicole_r_murphy) or on Facebook.
Thanks, Nicole, for dropping by. It’s always great when a fellow writer shares a little bit of their life with us. Good luck with the new releases when they come out, but in the meantime, everyone can get a taste by reading the Dream of Asarlai series.
I’m very excited to have Erica Hayes on my blog today. I met Erica through Romance Writers of Australia and have been working with her as a fellow contest manager for a few years now. She is one super switched on chick with a sassy sense of humour and a massive talent. She won the premier award the RWA has – the Valerie Parv Award – a number of years ago, a win that helped to launch her career and since then has become a successful paranormal author whose books can be found in all the major book retailers in Australia and oversees.
She has a new book out, Scorched, which she is here to tell us about, but first, given I’ve been asked alot lately about why I write paranormal and what I think makes up a paranormal story, I thought I’d ask to get her ideas on it.
So, over to Erica and her thoughts on the paranormal and paranormal creatures.
Hi everyone! Thanks so much to Leisl for hosting me on her blog today.
What makes a creature paranormal? Is it inhuman magical powers? The ability to cheat death? Strange eating habits? Sharp teeth? There’s such a range of paranormal fiction these days that it’s hard to tell.
Back in the day, there were vamps and weres, and that was about it. If it didn’t suck blood or do the funky furry thing, no one cared. Certainly romance readers didn’t care! Everyone loves a hot alpha vampire, right? The hotter the better. Orgasmic blood-sucking, improbably large man parts, endless hard-ons, whatever you like. Hell, the guy’s dead. No circulation! We’re just making this stuff up anyway, right, so let’s make it good.
My point: everyone’s favourite creatures weren’t just humans with added magic—they were something else. Something other.
But then we started to branch out. Demons, angels, dragons, coyote shifters, whatever monster floats your boat… but whatever the paranormalicality is, it has to be sexy. Zombies—the rotting, brain-munching kind—are out. Likewise the yukky kind of shapeshifter. Spiders and bugs are definitely no-go. (Unless you’re talking about villains. Then you can be as creepy as you like. Brr.)
But we’re also talking magical people. Witches, psychics, people who move things with their minds or cast hexes or bring other people back from the dead. Paranormal doesn’t have to be a creature feature anymore. No monsters required.
Even superheroes are cool again. The line between paranormal and contemporary is blurring—after all, what’s a rock star or an improbably young and sexy billionaire but a superhero of a different sort? He may not have magical powers, exactly—unless you count improbably large man parts and endless hard-ons… oh, wait…—but he sure as hell isn’t ordinary.
Maybe this is why I find the everyday kind of contemporary so uninspiring. The ones with normal people leading normal, boring little lives. Snore. For me, there’s no magic without a little fantasy. Sorry, but there it is. Enough with all this BDSM thing so we can pretend it’s dangerwous, too.
Danger, pfft. When’s the last time you got your leg chewed off and munched to bits by a horny rock star? Or accidentally came back from the dead and suffered in crippling bloodthirst FOR ALL ETERNITYYY from a hot night of whip-and-chain action?
Danger?? Please. Just give the dude fangs and be done. Fantasy, folks: you know you want some.
P.S. If you like cool superhero-flavoured action in your fantasy – and hey, who doesn’t? – I have this new book out, called Scorched. Just so you know 🙂
Thanks for that, Erica. I love your take on that and the way you pull no punches. I’m rather fond of the paranormal as well. Can’t wait to read your new book. Speaking of which, here is a little bit about it:
Scorched
In a world where everyone wears a mask, you can’t trust anyone… not even yourself.
Verity Fortune was once Sapphire City’s top crime-fighter, wielding her powers of telekinesis to battle the city’s most despicable villains. Now, she’s consumed by a single burning desire: revenge. Against those who took away her mask, her memory, and nearly her life. Having escaped from the asylum they left her to rot in, Verity dons her mask once again and becomes the Seeker, a vigilante warrior for truth.
But when she unwittingly uncovers an evil conspiracy deep within her own family, she’s suddenly on the run, alone and hunted by those she thought were on her side…
Buy links:
Author links:
