Friday, November 21, 2014

Friday Links -- Volume 54 and Cover Reveal for Walking Shadow

It's Friday, thank goodness.  I'm tired of driving two hours back and forth to work in the snow.  Fortunately, if all goes the way the weathermen say it will, the snow will be gone by the weekend.  Yay!

Friday is also a special day for Emma Adams, since it's cover reveal day for her new book, Walking Shadow.  So be sure to check it out along with this week's links.

Have a great weekend!

ChemistKen


Free Day Book Promotion Checklist

Creating Strong Characters—Some Typical Challenges

Should Authors on the Traditional Path Pay an Editor?

Everything I Need to Know About Character, I Learned From Buffy

Pen Name Launch: What worked and what didn’t for marketing

Choosing Which Thoughts to Italicize

Nanowrimo: Midpoint


Walking Shadows Cover Reveal






When you have a connection to the Darkworld, nowhere is truly safe.

Ashlyn has found a new home in Blackstone, but when a spate of grave robberies across the country spark fears that someone is practicing illegal sorcery, she comes under the radar of the Venantium, the protectors of the Barrier between her world and the Darkworld, who are suspicious of any sorcerer unaware of their origins.

The trouble is, what Ash does know might just get her killed.

Sufferers of the dangerous condition known as the vampire’s curse are being brutally killed, and the latest victim is Leo’s guardian, the ex-head of the Venantium. Ash determines to help Leo find out what’s really going on, but it isn’t long before events are spiralling out of control. The dead are rising from their graves, and the barriers around Blackstone are threatened by a demon which looks exactly like Ash herself…


Release date: 1st December 2014

Add on 
Goodreads!


And here's more information on the first in the series, Darkness Watching  (Darkworld #1)

Eighteen-year-old Ashlyn is one interview away from her future when she first sees the demons. She thinks she's losing her mind, but the truth is far more frightening: she can see into the Darkworld, the home of spirits– and the darkness is staring back.

Desperate to escape the demons, Ash accepts a place at a university in the small town of Blackstone  - little knowing that it isn't coincidence that led her there but the pull of the Venantium, the sorcerers who maintain the barrier keeping demons from crossing from the Darkworld into our own world.

All-night parties, new friendships and a life without rules or limits are all part of the package of student life - but demons never give up, and their focus on Ash has attracted the attention of every sorcerer in the area. Ash is soon caught between her new life and a group of other students with a connection to the Darkworld, who could offer the answers she's looking for. The demons want something from her, and someone is determined to kill her before she can find out what it is.

In a world where darkness lurks beneath the surface, not everyone is what they appear to be...
 

Reviews

“In the vein of Buffy and Supernatural, DARKNESS WATCHING found that perfect balance between the freaky and the fun.” - YA author Jen Estes

"Demons, Sorcerers, evil, and secrets. Could you ask for a better supernatural suspense set-up?...It's full of suspense, danger, evil and dark humor. The plot is original, and completely gripping. From the first page, this book had me hooked." - Rose at 
Desert Rose Reviews

"A suspenseful first part to an intriguing new fantasy series." - 
Sharon Stevenson, supernatural author

“The story is extremely well-written with effortless, flowing prose, and the original magic-user mythology and Darkworld creatures are very entertaining. The author took what might have been over-done premise and twisted it into something very fresh and exciting.” - Lexa Cain, author of Soul Cutter

"This is a wildly different story than any I have read about demons...I loved it!" - Kathy at 
Bookmarks, Spoilers, and Happily-Ever-Afters


https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gifFear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella is also available now!

This is a standalone novella, intended as a prequel to the Darkworld series. As it takes place one year before the events of Darkness Watching, it doesn’t contain any spoilers (although it does hint at things which will come into play later in the series).

Freakish powers and staring demon eyes aren’t part of Claudia’s plans for the future – and neither is ending up stuck at the gloomy, isolated University of Blackstone. But bad life decisions are the least of her problems, when a split-second decision to help out another magic-user puts her in the crossfire of both the shadow-beasts and the creepy organisation which hunt them down.

Claudia’s never had to worry about making the right choice before, but every decision matters when you have a Darkworld connection. Soon, she’s going to have to make a choice: turn her back on the crazy and try to live a normal life, or take the monsters down.

But in a world where everyone seems to have secrets, can she really trust her fellow magic-users – or even herself?




Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing bizarre, fantastical stories. She was born in Birmingham, UK, which she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the Costa Rican jungle. She also entertained her creative writing group and baffled her tutors by submitting strange fantasy tales featuring dragons and supernatural monsters to workshops. These included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the light of day).

Now a reluctant graduate, Emma refuses to settle down and be normal. When not embarking on wild excursions, she edits and proofreads novels for various publishing houses and reads an insane number of books. At the age of 21, she signed a publishing contract with Curiosity Quills Press for the first book in her creepy urban fantasy Darkworld series. DARKNESS WATCHING was published in October 2013, the first in a five-book series.
Emma’s books tend to contain monsters, magic, and wildly inappropriate humour.

8 comments:

  1. How much snow did you get?
    Emma's covers look awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We visited our son in NB last Christmas. We left a snow blizzard in BC and landed on a clean tarmac surrounded by green grass. The next 24 hours it snowed 18". So, this winter we're in Bucerias sweating buckets. Haha. I know, not fair. But we're old and being cold is difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meant to add Congratulations to Emma. The book cover and excerpt are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooh, snow! Send some here. But two hours driving? Ugh.

    If Emma's blurb wasn't interesting enough (it is) those covers sure are. Want to read but no time. Argh!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, that's a great cover. Congrats to Emma!
    Hope the weatherman was right and your snow is gone.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh man! I LOVE Emma's new cover. I wondered why I hadn't heard much from her lately. Guess now I know why.

    Unleashing the Dreamworld

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations, Emma!! It IS a gorgeous cover.

    two hours of driving?? UGH! I hope things have cleared up a little!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the new cover. Congrats, Emma!
    Spending 2 hours in the snow sounds like fun! Oh wait, you said driving, not playing ;)

    ReplyDelete