Category: Books

Flash Sale: The Cauldron Bound

On By MikaelaIn Books, news

My bronze age novella with elves that is (sorta) trying to stop the zombie apocalypse is on sale for 0.99 this week only. On Monday, it is going up to 2.99 again. The reason for this is because of Octocon and that it is an excellent Halloween read.

The Cauldron Bound:

TheCauldronBound_SmallA war weary warrior…
For centuries, the dark elves clans have been at war with each other, leaving the ties of trade and trust in shreds. When Aodh of the Creek clan is sent by his chieftain to find out the source of the Portal Clan’s unrelenting strength, he has no idea the obstacles he and his friends will face. As they journey through the war torn land, meeting wary warriors and canny chieftains, Aodh slowly realize a foul magic is spreading through the land.

A cranky old seer….

When the war started centuries ago, Moirin of the Valley retreated into the mountain, not wanting to be a pawn in the hands of chieftains. She has been happy in her valley, seeing few people. Until now. When her goddess sends her a vision warning her of a taint spreading through the realms, Moirin realize she will have to leave her valley.

….will have to work together to save the clans

Aodh and Moirin are unlikely allies, but they agree that they will have to collaborate if they are to stop the spreading taint, and to find out who is behind it. As they work to stop the plans, the Portal Clan are watching from the shadows, planning to strike when they least expect it

You can buy it at: Amazon, Kobo, BN, Ibooks.

Irregular round up of what I’m writing and reading

On By MikaelaIn Books, updates, Writing

The publishing:

First, Exile now has a permanent price of 0.99. The price has already dropped at Amazon, other retailers are coming during the next 2-3 weeks. Why? Because Kobo was charging 2.70, and since I want to charge 2.99 for The Cauldron Bound, I realised that was unsustainable.  Plus, I decided a low price is a good way to introduce new readers to my books.

The Alchemist’s Apprentice has been revised based on betareader feedback, now it is off to another beta reader, who has never read my stuff before. *bites nails*  The Alchemist’s Apprentice is also available for pre-order at Amazon. But you knew that already, right?

The Cauldron Bound is off to the copy editor sometime next week.  I… am nervous, honestly. It is a novella and I am wondering if you will like it. I think you will, but I cannot read your minds. 🙂

 

The writing:

When I began writing Vanished, the current WIP, I made pretty good progress, but then I took a break to revise The Alchemist’s Apprentice.  After I finished the revision, I have been poking at the WIP. So today I decided to sit down and write a synopsis. Which I did.  The result is 1100 words that tells me what happens in the story. There might have been some flailing on twitter and in the war room.  Why?  Because Exile is 8000 words long, with a 600 words synopsis. This synopsis is almost twice as long, which would mean that the story will be at least 12000 words, if not longer.. I am telling myself that nothing is set in stone. Though if it gets over 15 000 words, I will probably push the release date to next year, so that I have time to revise it properly. But we will see.

The reading:

I don’t talk much about what I read, since I got burned out on reviewing.  I also tend to read in bursts the last year or so.  Anyway, the last week I have been reading a lot of cozy paranormal mysteries lately. I like to do that for a palate cleansing, though sometimes cozies gets too caught up in the characters life so the mystery gets well hidden.  I like Juliet Blackwell, though, so I buy her books occasionally.  I picked up It takes a witch by Heather Blake, since it was on sale. It was good, but of the easily forgotten kind.

I have also glommed on the first three books in Annie Bellet’s Jade Crow series. I like them a lot. Highly recommended!

 

Rambles ahead

On By MikaelaIn Books, Writing

This will be a slightly rambling post, since I am tired and has a slight headache. Sorry.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I finished Frosthold a week ago and I am currently revising The Cauldron Bound. The revisions are going really good. I have added almost 2000 words so far, and I am roughly at the 40% mark.  So I am really happy.  The goal is to finish the revision by November 1st. Then it is off to Kari for Betareading, while I begin to type in Frosthold.

Hm… I just realised that I need to become better at spreading the revising out. So maybe I will write the Brownie Liason prequel instead. Or maybe not.

In other news, I am on a Romantic Suspense glom.  I am happy, though, since I have broken my reading slump.  Well.. I guess for most people reading 1-2 books per week are a normal pace. For me that equals a reading slump, since I can easily read 1-2 books per day.   If I have time.

I think part of the reading slump was because I am burned out a bit on my normal fare of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance.  I am still reading and enjoying my autobuy authors, though.

Speaking of autobuy authors: There is a lot of good books out Oct 25th.  My brain is saying whee, but my wallet is whimpering.  Speaking of good books. Well, great books, actually.  You have supported Chrysoula Tzavelas Kickstarter for  Wolf interval, haven’t you?
If not, check out the trailer she created!

 

 

 

 

Another teaser from Daughter of the Dark

On By mikaelalindIn Books, Writing

I spent yesterday creating a cover for Daughter of the Dark. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Simple, yet it doesn’t scream home made to me. Best of all? All the elements in the stockphoto I found is tied to the plot.

So here comes a tiny snippet from Daughter of the Dark:

 

I knew that the wool was expensive. Very expensive. The money I would get if I sold a bolt of that wool was enough to feed me and Rhiane for months, maybe even a year if we lived frugally.

Daughter of the Dark should be out in early 2014 :). If someone wants to beta read it, leave a comment, email me or catch me in the war room.

Friday Bargains: Urban Fantasy and Mystery

On By MikaelaIn Book Recommendations, Books

Carina Press has lowered the price of Janni Nell’s Allegra Fairwater series to 2.99. Which is a great price, but it can get lower if combined with a Kobo Coupon. VoucherCode30 gives 30% off on any non Agency book. I am a bit behind on the series, but I really recommend it.
To die for is an eight book bundle that is available for pre-order at Amazon and Kobo for 0.99. I am definitely getting it.  Unlucky by Jana DeLeon have been on my wishlist for a long time.
Capable of Murder by Brian Kavanaugh is free at Amazon. I reviewed this last year, and found it a decent mystery.
Trouble in Mudbug by Jana Deleon is free. I know I mentioned it awhile ago, but I love Jana Deleon’s humourous mysteries.
The Accidental Demonslayer by Angie Fox is free. This made me happy, since this series have been on my wishlist for a long time.

WWW Wednesday

On By mikaelalindIn Books

 

What are you currently reading?

Nothing. I am between books right now. Which is an…odd feeling.

• What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished reading Heart of Darkness by Lauren Dane, which was an intresting Paranormal Romance
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am not in the mood for fiction right now, plus I feel I need to do research for Trollkungens dotter, so I think I’ll get Människan och Naturen 1 from the library.  This is big hardcover tome that sadly is out of print. I would love to have all three books in my research library.

 

WWW Wednesday Jan 16th

On By mikaelalindIn Books5 Comments

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

 

I found this meme at Book View Cafe, although originally it was created by Shouldbereading

 

• What are you currently reading?

The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  This is a freebie and it has been in my TBR pile forever. I know that Sherlock Holmes is a classic, but I just do not care about the mystery. To me he feels smug, and snotty.  No, I think I’ll give up on Sherlock Holmes, and re-read the Raffles series by EW Hornung instead.   ( Gentlemanna thief, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother in law.)
• What did you recently finish reading?

Heart of the Wolf by Terry Spears.  This is another book  that has been in my TBR pile forever. Parts of it was good, but I had some problems with connecting to the characters. 

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Not sure, either I’ll glom on the Granite Wolves series by Vivian Arend, or I’ll read Beautiful Scars by Shiloh Walker.

 

Operation Shelfpurge

On By mikaelalindIn Books, Life2 Comments

Earlier this week ( or was it last week?)  Laura Anne Gilman purged her shelves of non-fiction books on twitter.  Yesterday, I realised that I need to do the same but with fiction.   Let’s be honest: I live in a small apartment, I have a cupboard filled with books, and  I have  a lot of books at my mom’s as well.  And… most of them I haven’t read in years. Some of the books are on the keeper shelf, but most of them aren’t.

So, the plan is to  go through them, and sort out the keepers from the not keepers. And then sell the culled books on Bokbörsen.  I am a bit sad that Alibris didn’t work, but I can understand the buyers ( If I priced a paperback at 2 dollar, Alibris added 12 dollar in shipping, which put the price at 14 dollars.).

But I am toying with idea of putting up a list the books I am culling at the blog, and let  interested blog readers buy directly from me.    Well, we will see.

( You can see the Fantasy books I am currently selling here.)

I’ll never again complain about Amazon’s Whispernet fees

On By mikaelalindIn Books

So, I have been poking around at Dito recently, since I got a nice hefty Giftcard for Christmas. I have bought some books, mostly in Swedish, but I have also grown more and more appalled at their prices.  Not the prices on swedish e-books, since I already knew they were high. ( There’s a reason I get most of them from the library)  No, what appalls me is their prices on english e-books.

Let’s take a few examples:

Stolen by Shiloh Walker:
List price: 7.99.  Price at Dito:  13.50.
Maya Banks Highlander Trilogy are priced the same. Misfit by Sylvia Day: List price: 2.99, price at Dito: 6.99. Jeaniene Frost’s Cat and Boone series:  List price: 7.99 Dito: 14.99

Maybe the reason that I am so appalled is that I am used to the US prices, and the fact that both Books on Board and Kobo gives me discounts.    I understand that Dito needs to turn a profit, not to mention the distributor wants their cut.    Maybe the reason is that they want to price the English e-books at the same level as Swedish e-books.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I am very interested to see how they react to Bokon.  Why? Since Bokon offers US list prices on their English e-books. Uh-uh.  You read that right.  Granted, their sortiment is different.  Bokon sells e-books from indie publishers ( Samhain, Kensington, Carina Press etc) while Dito sells a lot of the bigger publishers.

And, I am pretty certain I will buy more books from Bokon than Dito in the future. The main reason  is that I really like what they are doing.  Their webpage is easy to navigate, they offer the possibility to pre-order books, and not to mention they sell books from  my favorite publishers.