Release day!

Nightwater officially releases today! Click here to check it out!

Book Release and a Free Read!

I've got a couple of announcements. First of all, I finally have a release date for Nightwater. It's official release is December 22, 2015. It's available for pre-order now!

Also, I'm running a free book promotion on Amazon until December 18th. You can download Nightfire for free for the next two days!

 

 

Happy reading! :)

Cover Reveal!

Today I finally get to reveal the cover to my second book- Nightwater. What do you guys think? I love how it turned out! Thanks to Marianne from Premade Ebook Cover Shop.

 

 

Read the first chapter of Nightwater!

Today I finished my final edits of Nightwater! All that's left is to get the cover design and formatting done and I'll be able to make the book available for everyone. To celebrate, I thought I would post the first chapter of Nightwater: Book 2 in the Night Series below. ***There are major spoilers below if you haven't read book 1- you have been warned!*** Hopefully, I'll be able to share the cover art with you soon!




                                     Nightwater: Book 2 in the Night Series

                                     Chapter 1

 

Love overcomes all challenges. It knows no boundaries. No limits. That’s what I tell myself as I rock back and forth in William’s arms. He’s a creature now, like me. A vampire trapped in a world of darkness. A world of death. Just moments ago, I thought he had left this world forever; a slave to the fragile nature of mortality. Things change, though. Everything’s different. He’s not leaving this world anymore. Not now.

The cold basement holding us is lit by the glow from a few dying embers. He pulls away and begins to cough. “What’s going to happen to me?” William’s voice is raspy and soft. His forehead wrinkles with confusion. Painful understanding stirs in his eyes. He must know he’s a vampire, or at least in the process of becoming one. William wipes his face with his hand. “I mean, physically. I need to be prepared if I’m going to be a killer.” Yep, he definitely knows. He’s becoming a monster and there’s nothing either of us can do to stop it.

I lean against the stone basement wall and think back to when I turned. It’s a memory I’ve tried hard to forget; some memories are not worth keeping. “You’re weak right now but you’re going to get stronger. Once the initial pain and confusion clears, you’re going to be hungry. It shouldn’t take long.” I keep my voice low, as if it might hurt him. “You will feel unsettled for awhile. The sensation will last until you feed.” I hate saying those words. I know they must hurt him. William values human life more than anything.

“I’m not going to feed,” he says, resolute.

William was always too moral for his own good. He would never kill anything that wasn’t a monster. “We can try animal blood,” I say in my best reassuring voice. “I don’t know how long it will hold you, though.” I wish I could be good the way William is. “It might buy us some time to figure things out, at least.”

His head rests just inches from my face. I push dark, chestnut hair away from his midnight blue eyes. “You look different already.”

“Different?” he asks.

“Mm-hm. Like, prettier I guess. That’s the only way I can describe it.” William was always good-looking—masculine, strong—but he’s more than that now. Much more.

He takes a moment to examine the back of his hands, which have become a beautiful, rich olive color. I’m glad he’s distracted. “I think I’m hungry.” He looks up at me and terror moves into his eyes.

“We need to get you out of here.” I glance around the dark underground dungeon as I plot out some sort of plan. The light from embers in the oversized fireplace across the room is fading. It’s so dark that I can barely see the arsenal of deadly weapons I know are laid out on a table across the room. This is probably a bad place to be while he’s shifting. It’s full of dangerous objects; not something you want around a new vampire. “Let’s get you somewhere safe. We need to get you out of this house. The staff can’t see you like this.”

“Do I look that different?’

I don’t respond.

“Agh!” He cries out, biting his full lower lip as he wraps his hands around his stomach. I have no idea where to take him. My place isn’t a realistic option right now; all kinds of danger has found its way to my home. He mouths to me, It hurts. I hate that the pain is taking away his voice.

“I know,” I say. I don’t remember the agony of the change. I only remember overwhelming hunger. But maybe it’s because I’m different. I’m not pure vampire—at least not according to Jesse. If he’s right, I’m half vampire, half…something else. Ruslka. A water demon or something. All I know for sure is that I’m not human. I’m monster through and through.

Maybe I have no real idea of what to expect as William changes. I lead him by the hand to the stairs, but he doubles over in agony before we make it up the first step. The pain of transformation appears to be taking over. “The kitchen. Can you make it to the kitchen?”

He doesn’t answer, but feebly crawls up a few steps. I consider making a mad dash across the house to get some raw, bloody meat and then running it back to him, but I’m terrified of leaving him alone. Who knows what he might do. He slides up two more steps. “I can handle this.” The words squeeze out his lips like the sour juice from a lemon. I’m not sure if he’s saying it for his sake or mine. He glances down at his feet.

“Do you think you can get up? Maybe we can cover your face or something.” I try to arrange the collar of his shirt to hide as much of his face as possible. It doesn’t work.

“I don’t think so,” he says, as he struggles to stand.

Maybe I can carry him and run somewhere safe, if such a place even exists. I bend down with every intention of throwing him over my shoulders and carrying him up the stairs, but stop as I remember why I ended up here in the first place.

There are vampires after me. Lots of them. I’m pretty much guaranteed to run into a few the second I step out the front door and there will be no way to avoid them with William in my arms. I bend down again and try to guide him to kneel onto the steps, but he pulls away. I know what I have to do and I hate it.

“Listen.” My words are barely above a whisper. “You need to stay here. You aren’t going to make it much farther.” I wish I knew more about this. “I need to get you something to help with the pain.”

At the mention of pain, William drops to the ground, writhing and convulsing on the crumbling stone stairs. I have to go. There’s no more time. I open the door at the top of the stairs and am momentarily blinded by the light filling the office. I take two cautious steps forward then hear a click behind me.

 

Book Two Update

I just wanted to post a quick update on the progress of the Nightfire sequel because a lot of people have been asking me about it.

Nightwater recently went through a really nice copyedit- if anyone is looking for an editor I would highly recommend Thomas at Main Line Editing! I've finally completed the edits after some delays due to a death in my family, and am preparing to have it go through a final proofreading. Once it hit's that stage it will just be a matter of having the book formatted and uploaded, so I think there's a good chance that Nightwater will be available within the next few months!

I'm excited to have it out in the world after waiting so long to release it-I hope my readers love the book as much as I do.

Also, the print version of Nightfire is available now on Amazon (as well as the ebook)- you can find it here if you are interested.

Transitioning to self publishing has been a fun learning experience for me. I can't wait to see what it brings in the future!

Nightfire is Back!

So after a lot of thought and research, I've decided to self publish Nightfire and the following books in the series. The second book, Nightwater, is currently being edited and I'm hoping to have it available sometime in the next three to six months.

Check out the lovely new cover art from Marianne Nowicki! You can find more of her work here if you are looking for a cover artist!

Nightfire is available again in digital format an Amazon. If you are interested in checking it out click below:

Nightfire Ebook

I'm also working on making it available in print, which should happen in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone who has helped me get my book back on track. I'm looking forward to an exciting future!

Musa Publishing Announcement

Yesterday I received an email from my publisher announcing that they are closing their doors at the end of the month. It was hard to hear as I had high hope for the company and have made friends over the years with many of the other authors and employees. This also means that my book, Nightfire will only be available for purchase until Febuary 28th, 2015. Right now I'm exploring other options that would let me republish the book and the rest of the series (I always intended to Nighfire to be a four part series.) I've been looking into self publishing or even finding another small pub to work with but I haven't made a full decision yet.

Right now, Musa is holding a huge sale of all Musa books on their site so it's a good time to stock up if you need reading material. Nightfire is also on most major E-retail sites until the end of the month.

I'm hoping this closing door means another one is opening. While I am sad to see this happen, I believe it could move me down another publishing path. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Thanks for all your support over the last few years.

National Novel Writing Month

I was recently contacted by Bob Clary from Webucator about answering some questions about writing as part of National Novel Writing Month. I thought it was a great idea, especially since I've been pretty bad about blogging recently. So here are my answers to his questions.

-  What were your goals when you started writing?

I honestly didn't have a lot of goals when I started, I mostly wrote for fun. At one point, I decided to try and write a novel and my goals progressed from there.

- What are your goals now?

I'm working on another novel, so my goal is to get that finished and hopefully published someday.

- What pays the bills now?

I have an office job working for a long term pharmacy.

- Assuming writing doesn't pay the bills, what motivated you to keep writing?

A love of writing. Even if I knew I would never publish another thing in my life, I would still write, because it's something I love to do.

- What advice would you give young authors hoping to make a career out of writing?

To not give up. There's a lot of rejection an red tape to get through in writing. The publishing world is changing so quickly that people can barely keep up. I think it's easy to get caught up in that world, so staying focused on actually writing can be difficult. Keep at it, even if it's a slow process. Someday all that hard work might pay off.

A Quick Update

I haven't posted an update in awhile and wanted to check in and say hello. I've been really busy lately with work and have been doing a bit of traveling as well. I've also started a new writing project which has been taking up some of my free time. I hope all of you guys have been doing well. I haven't been spending as much time on Blogger lately and I definitely miss all my Blogging friends! Hopefully, the next time I post on here I'll have actual news or at least something interesting to say.

Lots of love to you all!

Alyson

Book Review: Green Kitty

I was recently Approached by an author about doing a book review of her children' book, Green Kitty. I don't do book reviews on here very often, but after reading a bit about the book, I realized the book was about Alzheimer's disease and dementia, which I have a soft spot for since I lost my grandfather to it. So I decided to check out the story and give it a review here.

I have sort of mixed feelings about the book. It's basically a collection of animal stories told from the perspective of a family member who is suffering from dementia. I really liked the premise, the illustrations were lovely and some of the stories were hilarious. There were also places where the writing was really passive, though and it slowed down the pace of the book. It took me awhile to really be able to enjoy the story. I would have liked to have seen the stories be a bit more connected to each other. Each chapter was like its own short story. I did enjoy the ending (though I won't give anything away.)

So overall, I have to give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

If you are interested in learning more about it, here is the Green Kitty website.

Guest Post

Jennifer Jackson was nice enough to invite me to do a guest post over at her blog. Everything it & Tales. She's also giving away a digital copy of Nightfire to one winner. Check it out here!

Fallen

I've been busy finishing up my latest WIP, but I thought I'd post another poem on here for the time being. This is one of my older ones.

Fallen

I can still remember the snowflakes
that fell
the night
I fell
for you
landing in my eyelashes
while you kissed me
on your porch
saying goodbye.
The stars hung
so clearly
in the sky above us
so pure
sure to fall from the sky.

Happy New Year!

I'm just posting to wish everyone a happy New Year. I haven't posted much here lately, but I will try and do better with it next year! Do you have any New Years resolutions?

Blogging Tips

Today I thought I’d share a few tips for my blogger friends. I’ve been blogging for almost two years now and I’ve learned a lot since I first started. Here are a few tips I've picked up on!

1. Register your blog with google. If you blog long enough, eventually Google does this on its own. But if you are just starting out, it can help drive traffic your way more quickly. Here’s the link to submit. You can also submit to other search engines as well.
2. Give your blog a title that’s at the beginning of the alphabet. This pushes your blog to the top of everyone’s readers and gives you a little more visibility. You can also add *** in front of your title-this also pushes you to the top.
3. Title blog posts in the form of a question. When people search for something, they often type things in the form of a question-this will lead them directly to you.
4. Turn off captchas. Blogger sets them automatically. Turning them off will lead to more comments. My phone can’t read them, so I frequently find myself wanting to comment on blogs I’ve read and not being able to do so. No captchas=more comments.
5. Don’t forget to be yourself. If you come off too formal or spend a lot of time talking about things that don’t really interest you, people will be able to tell.

Do you have any good blogging tips? I'm always looking to learn something new!

I'm not dead! :)

Just wanted to write a quick post here so you don't think I fell off the face of the Earth. I've been busy working on my latest WIP and also trying to schedule a book signing (which is apparently harder than it sounds.) I've also been brainstorming for a NANO book. I've never attempted one, and am thinking about trying it out.

What's been going on in all your lifes?

A Bit of Photography

One of my hobbies is photography, so I thought I'd share a few recent shots on here. I may start doing this on a semi-regular basis. These are photos I took while house sitting at my friends farm. The place has a warm, country atmosphere that I think is pretty easy to see.

Freedom

I haven't posted a poem for awhile. I'm thinking about adding a poetry tab to this blog so all the poems can hang out together in one place. Anyways, this poem is titled 'Freedom.'

Let’s go to the edge of the world

Rest on the end of the universe

Where we can be together

This world can’t hold us

Once we break free

Together

Together

We shall be together.

We’ll sit on a star together

Watch the world crumble beneath our feet

And fall from the sky

To freedom

And the winners are..

First, I'd like to thank everyone who entered. You guys are all great. If you didn't win, you can still enter the contest on Goodreads for another chance.

Here's the bowl with all the entries.

I picked two names out at random.

The winners are:

David P. King

Dusty Crabtree

I'll be sending both of you e-mails to get shipping info.

Congratulations to both of you!

Book Giveaway!

Friday I finally received some print copies of Nightfire (yay!) Which means it's time for another contest. This time I'm giving away two signed print copies of my paranormal romance, Nightfire.

These are limited edition print copies and are not available in stores. If you want to learn more about the book you can click on the Nightfire tab above- you can even sample the first chapter there.

On to the contest rules

If you would like to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment with your e-mail info (or some other way of contacting you in case you win.) Winners will have to send me a physical address so I can ship the books to them.

If you want to enter additional times, all you have to do is share this contest somewhere online. I will give one additional entry for everytime you share,tweet or repost this blog somewhere. Just let me know in your comment where you have shared.

I will be putting all the names into a bowl and drawing to winners at random on Monday, July 23. (12PM Eastern time.) Winners will be announced on this blog and notified by e-mail.

I appreciate your help in spreading the word about the contest! Oh and I'm also running a giveaway for a print copy on Goodreads here, if you want another chance to win a copy.

Good luck to all who enter!

Movie Time

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on a cup pile of them. The first one was the new Spiderman movies. I really wasn't excited about this one, even though I love comic boom movies. It's just so soon from the last one. However, I ended up really enjoying it. The actors in it really added to the story and everything worked really well for me.

The other movie was John Carter. This one I was really excited to see. Unfortunately it was a huge let down. The story jumped all over the place, the actors had very little chemistry and the special effects just didn't live up to my expectations.

What did you guys think of these movies? Any reccomendations?