Manic Monday: Cover Reveal for The Treacherous Flame

Manic Monday: Cover Reveal for The Treacherous Flame

a treacherous flameHere is the cover to my short story, “A Treacherous Flame”! I plan to have it released on November 10th, and it will be free on Amazon.

Benjamin Fairchild, interrogator at Usiburn Tower, is in charge of extracting confessions from witches–and then killing them. His methods are brutal. From crushing thumbs to cutting out tongues, Benjamin is not afraid to use the most extreme methods to get what he wants.

On a crusade to eliminate every last witch he can, Benjamin is currently tasked with a young girl named Emily. She proves to be a most difficult case. Trying to convince Benjamin of her innocence is impossible when he is certain that witches are the biggest embodiment of sin. However, Emily will force Benjamin to discover a secret about himself that threatens to undo everything he has been taught.

If you need a reminder, I’ve included a button to my newsletter below. Click on it, subscribe, and you’ll receive it on the day of release.

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Cover Reveal for Chris Pavesic’s “The Caelimane Operation”

Cover Reveal for Chris Pavesic’s “The Caelimane Operation”

unnamedThe Caelimane Operation
When the Temples to the Goddess north of Southwatch are burned and followers of Dione are murdered, Hierocrat Catherine, a bard of the Caelimane Temple, sets out to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. With only the help of a traveling group of minstrels and a retired fae investigator, Catherine must solve the mystery before more people are killed, but will she succeed when she finds herself pitted against members of her own Temple, rogue members of the Seelie Court, and a seemingly unstoppable army of undead?
About the Darkside Codex
The Caelimane Operation is part of Musa Publishing’s Darkside Codex, a shared world series with a steampunk setting. Although steampunk forms the basis, the novels in the series explore science fiction, high fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, paranormal, romance, mystery, and noir themes. At the center of each story is the city of Southwatch and the dark cloud (a toxic stew of chemicals and pollution) that bisects not only the city, but the people who live in it. Segregation is quite literally built into the structure of the city with the rich and the powerful citizens living “sunside” while the poor and downtrodden live beneath the dark cloud.
The higher up you are in the city, the wealthier and more powerful you are.
The Caelimane Operation is scheduled for release on January 16, 2015 by Musa Publishing.
You can learn more about this at http://www.chrispavesic.com
Leading up to the publication date there will be special posts, pictures, and contests. Please check often to make sure you do not miss anything!

christAbout the Author
Chris Pavesic lives in the Midwestern United States and loves Kona coffee, steampunk, and all types of speculative fiction. Between writing projects, Chris can most often be found reading, gaming, gardening, working on an endless list of DIY household projects, or hanging out with friends.

Email: chrispavesic@outlook.com
Blog: http://www.chrispavesic.com
Twitter: @chrispavesic
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1IvVb7W

The Stars Are Infinite Cover Reveal!

The Stars Are Infinite Cover Reveal!

Here is the what I think is the gorgeous cover of The Stars Are Infinite! 

tsai

It is the sequel  to When Stars Die.  There will be a third book that I plan to call All Stars Align, which will be the final one in The Stars Trilogy. Here is the blurb for this novel:

Alice Sheraton is slated to be executed as a witch; however, her father spares her. He sends her to Finight Hill, a safe house for witches. Here a Shadowman begins to pursue her, and from this Shadowman she learns she has been bound with a terrible fate since birth: either be a martyr to free witches from their misery, or choose to live knowing her existence will bring on more chaos. 

This novel has a  December release , and you will know more information later, especially when you sign up for the newsletter.

Now here is an interview with Alice Sheraton so that way you get to know a little bit about her before you begin to read this sequel. There are no spoilers. However, make sure you read the first book before buying this one, or else you will get confused:

Hello, Alice. It must be strange being in an interview for you, especially because you’ve spent much of your life never having any attention drawn to you. 

Alice: It’s true. Much of my life has been spent preparing me to find a suitable husband. I did go to a finishing school before coming to Finight, so I do have a great deal of education. At the same time, when I was in the other school, I was taught to never draw any attention to myself. So I am nervous about this. What will my mother think? I used to love painting, until my mother took that away from me. I am well-read, and I had my own collection of books in my room. I loved being with Sara, who liked to get into all sorts of trouble I never agreed with, but did so anyway. These things are memorable, but if my mother ever found out about them, she would beat me with a wooden board.

What are your parents like?

Alice: My father has been nothing but supportive, and I’d like to think that if I had said something about wanting to own my own life, he would have been supportive. My mother, on the other hand, is an alcoholic, which is why I was born as a witch. The Seven Deadly Sins give birth to witches, and I suppose my mother’s continual sin is gluttony.

How has being a witch impacted your life?

Alice: Dreadful. I don’t even want to think or talk about what led up to my discovery. I was imprisoned in a small, dirty room in Governor Branch’s home. He is a horrid, perverted man married to my best friend Sara, who is around my age: I am fifteen. I was slated to be executed, but my father saved me by paying  a handsome sum of gold to Governor Branch. He couldn’t refuse the money, so he and Father decided to send me off to a safe house called Finight Hill. It looks like any other finishing school, and it is in a secluded area.

What were your reactions to Finight Hill? 

Alice: I was paranoid at first. It’s lovely on the exterior, but it’s rather bland on the inside. My other finishing school was richly furnished, with original paintings, marble sculptures, fresh flowers. It was, I suppose, like the inside of a rich man’s home. Finight had no such decorations. So I was scared. I thought I was sent there to be executed, that my father truly had no idea where he was sending me. Governor Branch wanted me dead, but when I met Pastor Brandon and a boy named Nathaniel, their presence and kindness swept away any paranoia I had.

Tell us about Pastor Brandon and Nathaniel.

Alice: Pastor Brandon is nice but strange. He falls into these fits where he cries out, “Curse is everyone who hangs on a tree!” This is a sentence commonly used right before witch executions. He also coughs up some substance from time to time. I don’t know what it is, but it’s black. Even so, he has made me feel welcomed.

Nathaniel, on the other hand, is beautiful, and I saw that right from the start, though I couldn’t admit it to myself. He’s also troubled. He smokes a lot, he scratches himself, and he’s reckless, but he has made me feel welcomed at Finight, and I accepted his friendship. Master Akilah isn’t too fond of him because of his reckless behavior.

How do you feel about Master Akilah?

Alice: I can’t stand him. Neither can Pastor Brandon nor Nathaniel. He was rude to me my first day there when he introduced me, complaining that I was late, not even welcoming me. He is the one who created the unnecessarily strict rules rules for Finight, where we are watched at all times, as though we are in an asylum. We do have certain activities that we have to do throughout the day, like studying. We can go outside once a week–under strict supervision. Nathaniel is smart enough to evade some of these rules, but it eventually becomes our downfall. After a certain event takes place, the rules become worse. At that point, we can’t even have doors to our rooms.

You hear voices?

Alice: I’m unsure if the voice is real or not. It sounds real. She at first told me Pastor Brandon killed her. Then she told me I should kill him. She said he knew who I was, and I couldn’t make any sense of that. He apparently knows the future. When I fainted and woke up in my room, her final words to me were, “You will be mine.” We all thought it was stress and nerves. I thought I was insane, but I was so certain the voice was real. And it is. It truly is.

Can you tell us who the voice belongs to? 

Alice: Her name is Annarelius, a Shadowman, a dead witch. She wants me because I can set the world free from sin, allowing everyone, even witches, into Paradise.

Tell us about this Shadowman. 

Alice: I would rather not.

Are there any final words?

Alice: My story…it is mine and mine alone, rife with the darkness that is innate in the life of a witch. It was a very hard story to tell. If witches are not freed, at least my account will make them feel less alone, if my account will even be allowed to exist. Witches are insignificant. We are nothing. Those who used to love us betray us and automatically hate us when they find out we are witches. This was the case with my best friend, Sara. The Vulgate, our bible, indoctrinates people into hating us, which is why they can hate so easily. I am not sure if this hatred will ever be erased. I have never known any allies to stop the hatred. I have never known any witches to start a rebellion. But our world is filled with nothing but cruelty. The ugliness of our world surpasses its beauty. Love is the only beauty that exists, but there isn’t enough of it.

Those are some very harrowing words, Alice, but I know you will be the one to make that change. Thank you for letting me interview you. 

Alice: 

I hope you enjoyed Alice’s interview and will pick up the already available When Stars Die and the not-yet-released The Stars Are Infinite when you are able to pre-order it or buy it on its release day. Remember it will have a December release date and will be mentioned in a future newsletter.

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Amazon (America, Canada, UK, Australia)

Kobo

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords 

Rafflecopter Giveaway

ImageAbout the Author

Amber Skye Forbes is a dancing writer who prefers pointe shoes over street shoes, leotards over skirts, and ballet buns over hairstyles. She loves striped tights and bows and will edit your face with a Sharpie if she doesn’t like your attitude. She lives in Augusta, Georgia where she writes dark fiction that will one day put her in a psychiatric ward…again. But she doesn’t care because her cat is a super hero who will break her out.  

Updates and Teaser

Updates and Teaser

Blogging everyday has been smooth sailing for me, but now it’s time for me to start evolving this blog so that every post I do is geared toward you guys as readers. This means that instead of blogging several times a day or even once everyday, I’m going to start blogging every other day in order to concentrate my efforts elsewhere–which I’m sure you guys obviously understand. I’m going to keep you updated too on what my posts are going to be about. For example, Friday’s post, which will be released in the afternoon, is going to be about My Writing Sin: Parents. While I love my own parents, I’m not wild about writing parents in general, so I usually find clever ways to ax parents from the picture.

When Stars Die is still in the works, so there isn’t a whole lot to update on this. But I will say with much excitement that it is getting a new cover makeover from the lovely Sarah at Sprinkles On Top Studios. I desperately wish I could give you guys even a smidgen of the design of this new cover, but I can say it will feature Amelia on the front. So that is in the works, and it will be wonderful and awesome and I am super, super excited for the finished product.

Also, I am working on something super cool that I will be giving away during a cover release party I plan to have whenever I get the okay from the publisher to release the cover of the book. It will actually be a mix between Stolentime and When Stars Die, but it’ll make perfect sense once you see what I’m giving away.

Last, here is a teaser from Stolentime. A little bit of background: This is from chapter one and Gene is undergoing some pretty severe psychosis, as well as struggling with suicidal ideation. shadow13

“Are you going to kill me? You should. I can’t hold on anymore.” I grab the deadbolt, trying to turn it with shaking hands while keeping my other hand against the door to muffle the sound. “I don’t know if I should be let out of here, you know? There’s no telling what I’ll do.” The deadbolt comes free. “But I don’t really care.”

The shadow doesn’t waver, and I laugh on the inside. “Of course you have nothing to say to this. You’re not real anyway.”

I undo the chain. My hands won’t stop shaking, even as one grips the knob, ready to turn. I look at the shadow one last time. His dagger is still by his side. He doesn’t intend to use it. He never intends to use it. No matter how much I wish he would, I can never wish hard enough for him to become so real that he can take me from my own mind.

No one can save me from this rotting brain.

As I open the door, the shadow vanishes into the darkness of the living room. The street stands wide and open for me, the summer night coaxing me outside. I put one foot outside and realize that I don’t have to turn back. I take another step. Both feet are outside.

I look behind me, into the house. Mom and Dad will miss me, I know. They’ll miss me a lot, but this isn’t about them. This is about me coming undone and knowing I can’t be fixed and tired of knowing I can’t be fixed but still being forced to get fixed anyway. You can’t glue a knickknack back together and expect it to be whole again when pieces are still missing.

I turn back to the street, and I see something, a tiny golden light that floats in the air at the end of the block. I’ll follow that, and wherever it takes me, I don’t care. I only care about getting out of my own mind.

 

 

Suggestions for Future Blog Posts: Readers’ Edition

Suggestions for Future Blog Posts: Readers’ Edition

I’m really wanting to gear my blog posts toward readers now–not just writers. So I would love your input about what you’d like me to write more of on this blog. It can be anything that interests you, so long as it’s from the perspective of a reader and not writer. I will still do posts aimed for writers, especially if I catch something in the publishing sphere that has my attention, but now it’s about you guys and what you want. So go on ahead! Leave some suggestions in the comments.

The Dancing Writer’s Pointe Shoes, Volume II

The Dancing Writer’s Pointe Shoes, Volume II

My feet in my somewhat dirty pointe shoes. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but since I plan to be in my revising chambers, I decided to leave you guys with a digest of ten of my most popular posts. Also, I would love recommendations for things you guys would like me to write about. I’ll probably be doing one post a day now that I am throwing myself at revisions of Stolentime, and so I would appreciate some inspiration. Also, keep an eye out later tonight for a guest blog post.

Stupid Writing Advice

Writers Must Live to Write, Not Write to Live

Advice to Young Writers

The Importance of Follower Appreciation

What Writers Owe Readers and Vice Versa

Symptoms of Clinical Depression Are Not Romantic for Writers

Publishing a Book: A Single Interview Question

We’re All Professional Writers

The Madness of Revisions

The Madness of the Value of Books

My Least Favorite Genre

My Least Favorite Genre

Licensed for CC use
Licensed for CC use

My dislike for the romance genre at first seems odd. After all, I wrote a paranormal romance whose plot hinges on that romance. Well, let me explain. First off, the rest of the books in the trilogy won’t have any romance. I was never interested in trying to cash in on the paranormal romance genre. In fact, I’m so disinterested that while When Stars Die is a paranormal romance, I turned that romance aspect on its head. Unfortunately you won’t see that until the end, but I decided to do something different with it because the paranormal romance genre has me burned out in general (unless your romance is unconventional, like it was in Shannon Thompson’s Minutes Before Sunset, but you don’t find that a whole lot).

Another facet of this romance thing is I don’t like pure romance novels. I do like romance as a sub-plot because it can complicate things, but pure romance novels I find dull and cheesy. I mean, some of the taglines authors use to lure readers into their romance books are so cheesy, like ‘wrangle into my heart’ if it’s a romance about a cowboy. I’m pretty sure you readers have seen a fair amount. I also HATE the covers of romance novels with a passion. I get these books are trying to attract women, but I’ve always hated books with over sexualized characters because your average person doesn’t look that way. Of course, I suppose romance is trying to play into some serious fantasies.

But back to the dull portion. I guess I find pure romance so dull because romance is something all of us experience in one form or another. I don’t want to read a book that reminds me of my messy turbulent relationships, and since I’m engaged, I don’t need a fantasy to escape into when I can just escape into another book where I know this stuff will likely never happen but still has relatable characters nonetheless–and where the romance sub-plot can really screw up the main plot but the main plot isn’t overshadowed by the romance. I care more about the romance as a sub-plot than a main plot because so much more seems to be happening that can tear it apart. It’s just not interesting to me when the main plot is a love triangle, or a jealous ex-lover, or she has two to choose from. That’s just all very, very boring, and while there are myriads of ways an author can go about creating a romance plot, I haven’t read a book where the outcome is unpredictable–and while I’ve only read a few, those few were enough to turn me away from the romance genre forever.

Romance just may not appeal to me because I don’t have a fairytale view. My relationship with my fiancé was very turbulent in the beginning, and I learned early on just how much work it would take to maintain it. It’s worth it, but it’s certainly no happily-ever-after, and romance books primarily play upon that. Everything is all great at the end, but you wonder what it’s like a few years from then or even a few months. I’m not cynical about romance, but I certainly harbor no more puppy love. But I can see how it’d appeal to others, like those who are looking for their Mr./Ms. Right, or those just so easily swayed by romance, or those looking for hope, or those who are romantics in general.

It just isn’t for me. Romance isn’t targeted for people like me, and that’s okay. It’s thriving on its own, and while I will never read another romance novel again and may never write romance again, there are plenty of other books out there for people like me.

As a side note, don’t forge to enter my double book give away here. You must be following me to be considered and must comment in the linked post to be entered. This will go until Saturday 9 PM.

The Madness of Pre-Release Marketing

The Madness of Pre-Release Marketing

Under CC License

I don’t have an official release date for my book yet, so I know there isn’t a whole lot I can do book wise (like set up blog tours, interviews, post excerpts, ect…) I know my contract manager is going to be in charge of the bigger marketing stuff, but I know I need to take charge of the social media marketing right now. And let me tell you, it isn’t easy. I think I have mentioned before how writing the book is the easy part but marketing the book is the hard part.

So why am I so hellbent on doing pre-release marketing when I don’t even have a date yet? I am aiming to be a bestseller. Perhaps it’s a slightly unrealistic goal, but I figure the higher I set my goals, the harder I’ll work, and in the end, at least I can say I worked hard and I won’t feel like I shorted myself by not doing all that I can. The market is fickle, after all. What’s considered a bestseller one year may not be the next year. Plus, reading is, unfortunately, in decline, and while I don’t understand why people won’t give reading a chance in favor of movies and television shows, all I can do is write the best damn book possible and market the hardest that I can.

What am I doing to get the ball rolling? For one thing I’m updating this blog several times a day to garner more followers and traffic. I also make sure my posts are interesting and that they start a conversation with readers so that way it is easier for them to comment and feel like they are participating. I give out writing tips through my posts, I will talk very personally about my life, and I am really going to get started on doing guest blog posts and interviews. I also want to do more book reviews, but it’s been difficult trying to find the time to read this past week. Next week might be easier.

I am also starting giveaways. Coraline brought in a good following and some decent participation. Because that did well, I think doing a weekly giveaway will be perfect. After all, they’re free books and no one has anything to lose–unlike my marketing job at Southern Siding where we will call the crap out of you if you are a homeowner and sign up to win the car. But that’s a different story. Plus, giveaways allow me to connect with more writers, and meeting new people for me has always been fun. I also love it when people are surprised they won something, especially people who have never won something or think they’ll never win.

Talking some about When Stars Die never hurts either. I’m doing character interviews and will eventually reveal a good summary of what my book is about. Also, I’m beginning to talk more about the current book I’m working on, Stolentime, because I want that to be my next book before When Stars Die’s sequel.

I also occasionally update my Facebook page (I need to do this more), and I participate on Twitter where I do get a good amount of followers each day. I’m also going to do my best to figure out how to use Tumblr to reach out to my intended audience. Last, I participate on writers’ forums because that is where you can meet new writers, engage in topics of interest, and put up topics that allow you to advertise things. I do YALITCHAT, AbsoluteWrite, and Writer’s Carnival. Any more, and I think my head will explode.

As a final closure to this topic, I want to remind you guys that I am giving away two books this week: Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Shannon Thompson’s Minutes Before Sunset. You must be following this blog to be considered and must leave a comment to be entered. You can find the post here.

Winner of Coraline by Neil Gaimain

Winner of Coraline by Neil Gaimain

200px-CoralineCongratulations to Kate Sparkes for winning Coraline by Neil Gaiman! I had a good amount of entrants for this book, and I was very pleased with the turnout. Because the turnout was so good, as you all should know by now, I’m going to do one book giveaway each week. You must be a follower of me to get considered, and there will be different stipulations with each book.

Tomorrow I will reveal what the next book will be, along with its stipulations.

Again, congrats to Kate Sparkes for winning! You can find her at disregard the prologue.