Meet the Characters of Stain...

Stain's characters have been called kaleidoscopic, unique, spiritually deep, and elaborately drawn by reviewers. If you've yet to read my fairytale / fantasy hybrid, here's an insider's look at the seven most important players in my gritty and Gothic retelling inspired by The Princess and the Pea, with quotes from the book to pique your interest:

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Out of the writing cave and into the light!

If you haven't yet added this on GoodReads, here's the link. There's also a book description and some sneak peaks over there.

Stay tuned! I'll have giveaways and reveals over the following months to shorten the wait for 2019. :)

Winners Announced + RoseBlood Virtual Tour Sneak Peek!

The winners for the YA Scavenger hunt grand prizes will be announced on their website Tuesday this week. 

As for my personal giveaway that included these prizes...

The winners are listed below. 

Signed RoseBlood ARC:

• Nicole Lynam

Black Rose Necklace:

• Alyssa Champagne

Signed RoseBlood swag pack:

• Karen Chappell
• Saba Hussain
• Morgan-reader-of-romance  

Congrats to the winners and thanks everyone for taking part! For those who didn't win, take heart. The official RoseBlood virtual tour, presented by RockStar Book Tours and Abrams/Amulet Books is on the horizon!

Thanks to Natalia Godik for contributing beautiful artwork to the banner!

Be sure to join us on October 24th-28th for more insights into the book along with giveaways including an INTL chance to win the prizes pictured below along with a RoseBlood ARC + collector's mask set. 

Click to enlarge

Every prize I'll be giving away plays a unique role in the story, and I'll give out hints about them during the tour.  I hope to see you there for all of the reveals and some Phantastic fun!

Winners Announced + RoseBlood Virtual Tour Sneak Peek!

The winners for the YA Scavenger hunt grand prizes will be announced on their website on Tuesday this week. 

As for my personal giveaway that included these prizes...

The winners are listed below. 

Signed RoseBlood ARC:

• Nicole Lynam

Black Rose Necklace:

• Alyssa Champagne

Signed RoseBlood swag pack:

• Karen Chappell
• Saba Hussain
• Morgan-reader-of-romance  

Congrats to the winners and thanks everyone for taking part! For those who didn't win, take heart. The official RoseBlood virtual tour, presented by RockStar Book Tours and Abrams/Amulet Books is on the horizon!

Thanks to Natalia Godik for contributing beautiful artwork to the banner!

Be sure to join us on October 24th-28th for more insights into the book along with giveaways including an INTL chance to win the prizes pictured below along with a RoseBlood ARC + collector's mask set. 

Click to enlarge

Every prize I'll be giving away plays a unique role in the story, and I'll give out hints about them during the tour.  I hope to see you there for all of the reveals and some Phantastic fun!

Twitter giveaway!

For a shot at a beautiful Untamed poster and a signed Splintered Series set (books 1-3), check out this awesome giveaway during  November 2-9, hosted by my publisher over on twitter!

Click image to go to giveaway

Announcing my new YA novel!

I've been working on my next YA book -- very eerie and Gothic, sort of a spin-off like Splintered, but not Wonderland related -- and have been itching to tell everyone about it (waiting for the green light from my publisher).

Today they're letting me announce it!

Here's the official blurb from GoodReads (click here to add to your GR shelf):

Click image to enlarge

Yay! The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux is one of my favorite stories of all time. I'm close to the halfway mark in my spin-off, and am having more fun in this lush, dark world than should be legal. ;D

So that you can share in the fun with me, I wanted to show you a peek. Since I'm a very visual writer, I like to look at my characters as their stories unfold, so I pin images to inspire me.

Even animals, if they play big enough roles, get posted on the board. Although with the Splintered Series, I didn’t have that luxury, since the creatures were born solely of my imagination, and I'm no artist. ;)

With that said, check out my pinterest board for the cast of RoseBlood, complete with a scowling Cornish Rex cat and a red swan.


Soon, I'll do another post and share more insights into the premise and introduce you to some of the characters. So keep checking back!

Untamed Ink Color & Table of Contents Reveal + GIVEAWAY TIME

******THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW ENDED******

Here are the winners:

Audio set of Splintered, Unhinged, and Ensnared: 

Kris Dickinson

Author-Signed Untamed Galley Title Page:

Dyanna J. Craig

"Cheshire Clock"  8X10 print:

Lauren Michelle Romas

Alternative Alice in Wonderland 8x10 inch print:

Shelby Scott

  

Follow the white rabbit 5X7 inch print:

Melissa Marshall

Gothic Alice Digital Print Trading Card (2.5" x 3.5"):

Ina M. 

Set of three Vintage Alice in Wonderland gift tags:

Vivien (deadtossedwaves)

Signed Untamed swag pack:

Luis Gonzalez

Kristy Lorenz

Virginia Ann Spencer

All winners have been notified via email. Everyone else, thank you for playing along, and I'll have another giveaway soon, hopefully with an Untamed hardcover up for grabs!

                                               ******

Okay, so exciting news, I'm finally done with all of the Untamed edits, and even got to see the gorgeous PDF that will very shortly become a book. 

I've also been given permission to share a sneak peek at the color ink my publisher (Abrams / Amulet Books) is using this time, as well as a look at the table of contents so you can see the order in which the stories will be presented.

So without further adieu, here's a glimpse of the upcoming book:

Click on image for high res viewing

I can't tell you how excited I am! Blue is my favorite color. ;) Although there's no guarantee it will be this exact shade, since such things vary between jpgs and actual printed images/ text, we do know it's going to be a shade of blue (on the purplish side). 

For a more in-depth description of the short stories, go here.

Now, in celebration of finally being D-O-N-E, and as a tribute to the gorgeous artwork behind the Splintered Series (by artist Nathalia Suellen), I'm going to give away a full set of my books, and some fun Alice related art prints in all shapes and sizes. 

And yes, the giveaway is INTL! 

Here are the prizes:

Audio set of Splintered, Unhinged, and Ensnared 

Author-Signed Untamed Galley Title Page (8.5 X 11")

"Cheshire Clock"  8X10 print (signed on back by artist Jasmine Becket-Griffith) 

Alternative Alice in Wonderland 8x10 inch print

  

Follow the white rabbit 5X7 inch print
Frame not included

Gothic Alice Digital Print Trading Card (2.5" x 3.5")
Display easel not included

Set of three Vintage Alice in Wonderland gift tags

3 sets of signed Untamed swag packs

That's a total of ten winners. Check out the rafflecopter below for how to get entered! 

Oh, and if you'd like FIVE extra entries, you can get them simply by putting my Untamed countdown widget (located at the top of my sidebar) on your blog to help me get the word out. 

Just copy and paste the following into an HTML widget on your blog: <style> #cntdwn{background:url(http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k579/aghoward6970/Untamed%20final%20cover2%20countdown_zpsa9dg9owg.jpg) no-repeat 0 0; color:#000000 !important; display:block;

 font-family: Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Palatino, serif !important; font-weight:bold; height:140px; padding:0px 20px 200px;width:177px; text-align:center;  } </style><script language="JavaScript">TargetDate = "12/15/2015 12:01 AM"; BackColor = "transparent"; ForeColor = "#000000 !important"; CountActive = true; CountStepper = -1; LeadingZero = true; DisplayFormat = "%%D%% Days, %%H%% Hours, %%M%% Minutes, %%S%% Seconds.";

FinishMessage = "Available Now"; </script> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://scripts.hashemian.com/js/countdown.js"></script>

Then leave me your blog's link in the window provided on the rafflecopter to prove you've done it, and you'll get those entries. 

Good luck everyone! Can't wait to share more Untamed excerpts / giveaways / and surprises over the next few months as we get ever closer to the December 2015 launch!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Untamed sneak peek!

I've been promising another sneak peek of Untamed for a while, so here it is! 

This excerpt is taken from Alison and Thomas's story, and is in her POV. In this scene, she's thirteen years old and just about to meet Morpheus, who will change her life forever.

Click picture to enlarge

And here's the first teaser I posted a few weeks ago from the headlining story Six Impossible Things, for anyone who missed it:

Also, I just got a look at Untamed's formatted pages, and the color of the text is beautiful! I'll have a reveal for that in a few weeks, along with a giveaway to celebrate that the edits are all behind me and a real book is just around the corner!

Untamed Excerpt and Swag!

****PLEASE NOTE: THE GIVEAWAY PORTION OF THIS POST HAS ENDED****

You can find the winner's list here.

Hi! So, I've been laying low online lately, working on Untamed edits along with a couple of top secret projects that I very much hope to share with everyone soon. But one thing I *can* share with you today is a look at the new Untamed bookmarks that will be available in my signed swag packs starting in JUNE. 

And as an added bonus, I blew up the excerpt nice and big below so you can see a glimpse of the book! 

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek! Only seven months to go and the book will be here for you to read in its entirety! BTW, if you want to preorder but haven't yet, there are buttons here on my website.

As I said, these new bookmarks will be going out to anyone who sends for swag packs via my website come JUNE. Until then, I have to use up the old bookmarks that are pictured on the swag page now. ;)

But, as a special treat, and to thank you for your support and patience, I'm giving away TEN signed swag packs containing the Untamed bookmark--yes, it's INTL!--through this weekend. 

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below. Come Monday, I'll use Random.org to choose the ten winning names from the comments. 

Good luck, and happy weekend!

Untamed INTL Giveaway Celebration!

Hello! I've been promising a giveaway forever, and finally I can follow through because:

1. At long last, I am out from under my hairy scary deadline! (In fact, I plan to spend the weekend catching up on social media. YAY!)

2. The beautiful Untamed cover is here, so I have some cover related goodies to share and a teaser!

Let's start with the teaser (FYI: there are SPOILERS from Unhinged and Ensnared)...

One of the stories contained in Untamed will be from Alison's POV. Here's a quick blurb:

The Boy in the Web: Upon returning to the human realm after the end of Ensnared, Thomas and Alison rekindle their romance and share the memories that brought them together in Sister Two's webby lair. From Thomas’s training as a child-knight, to Alison scheming with Morpheus to win the Red crown, they marvel over how Wonderland's brand of eerie and nonsensical magic was destined from the beginning to play a role in their family tree.

And, onto the goodies!

Up for grabs today are:

1-Signed Untamed Poster:

1-Signed Ensnared Hardback:

 1-Signed Unhinged Paperback:

1- Ensnared Audio Book:

1- Signed Slasher Girls & Monster Boys Poster

BONUS PRIZES:

1- 1970s Vintage Spiderweb Necklace:

 1- We're All Mad Here Art Print (frame not included):

3- Limited Edition Signed Untamed Mini-cards

Picture by: Chara Sullivan

2- Signed Swag Packs

That's 12 winners! The giveaway is INTL, and lasts through March 31st. 

Use the Rafflecopter below to enter, enter, enter!

Have fun and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Post-Ensnared novella has a name and a face!

North Texas Teen Book Festival 2015 was a huge success! Fifty-three authors and several thousand readers/volunteers/librarians were in attendance. WOW. 

I had a great day meeting Splintered fans and being on panels with some amazing authors! Here I am on a horror panel with the incomparable Leigh Bardugo, Carrie Ryan, Nova Ren Suma, and April Genevieve Tucholke:

Picture Attribution: Chara Sullivan

We talked scary movies and books, then discussed our upcoming horror anthology, Slasher Girls & Monster Boys. 

I've read a few of the stories inside, and you're going to want to pick up this little gem. It's filled with all kinds of tantalizing creeptitude.

Anyway, the most exciting time I had all day (other than meeting the fabulous fans--that's always the best part) was revealing the novella's title and cover! My good pal, Jenny Mlodzik, snapped some pictures of the event, so here it is in still shots:

And the title is UNTAMED! Yay! (I know, I was putting on a silly show ... but it was fun ... that's all that matters, right?)

Here's a nice big image, so you can see all the loveliness up close and personal:

Here's a quick rundown of Q&A about the book/cover:

Q: Is it going to be available in hardback or just ebook?
A: Both!

Q: When is it being released?
A: December 2015

Q: Will The Moth in the Mirror be included in this collection?
A: Yes!

Q: Will there be ARCs or gallies?
A: No, I'm sorry. My publisher isn't printing advanced reader copies since it's a companion novel. 

Q: Are Alyssa's eyes two different colors?
A: Yes. To find out why, you'll have to read the stories. ;)

Q: Is it posted on GoodReads yet?
A: Yes! Untamed is on GoodReads now, so add, add, add!

Q: What is the book about?
A: Follow this link for more information on the content. 

Q: Can I preorder it?
A: There are preordering buttons provided here. I'll update as more preorder locations become available.

If you have other questions, you may leave them below and I'll try to answer in a few days. Just please make sure your comments/questions aren't spoilery or I'll have to delete them. Not everyone has read Ensnared yet. ;)

I'm still under a crazy deadline, but I'll get a breather later this week (either Thursday or Friday) and will finally have that giveaway I've been promising. And yes, some of the prizes will be Untamed goodies! 

So, keep a weather eye on the horizon! And happy Monday. :)

Craving more Wonderland madness?

Yep, Alyssa's wearing her party hat. Here's why:

A lot of readers have been asking if Ensnared is really the end of the Splintered Series, and there's even been a rumor circulating that there might one day be a follow-up novella in the works (I should know...I'm the one who started it. Hehe).

Now finally I get to let you know officially! 

There IS a post-Ensnared novella on the horizon! Not sure when it will hit shelves yet, but I'm almost done writing it and have been having so much fun revisiting this world/characters! ❤

There are a few more details here. And I'll be back in March with a title and the cover reveal, along with a giveaway to celebrate. (◕‿◕)

Hope to see you then!