Yay! Release day! The Twilight Deception is officially out from Liquid Silver Books.

When the FBI receives word of vampire-related murders, they order tough-as-nails resident witch Arielle Thompson to investigate. But the last thing Arielle expects is to have her butt saved by a friendly vampire who claims he’s tracking the master vamp responsible for the murders.

Despite her wounded pride, Arielle can’t help her inexplicable attraction to this sexy-as-sin vampire who calls himself simply “Jackson.” He reluctantly informs her that their enemy is far more powerful than reports said — and his powerbase is only increasing.

Arielle and Jackson must team up to stop him, before he grows too powerful to defeat.

I hope it sounds as interesting to y’all, because I certainly had fun writing it.

Now, the contest…

Everyone in the last contest gave me some great ideas, and I think I will be using a particular one credited to Warinbear over at LiveJournal: poetry. Or, pooh-etry, if you prefer.

Limerick, haiku, sonnet, whatever. Be creative, and make me laugh. But it must match a theme: Darkness, hope, vampires, paranormal, blood, love. Mix, match, however you please. As long as your masterwork has some relation, it’s wide open for the contest.

The winner will receive a free copy of The Twilight Deception and mention in the acknowledgments of the sequel (or, a named walk-on role, if preferred). I’ll name the winner one week from today.

Have fun!

(And I’ll update for real soon. I promise. >_<)

ON SALE NOW!

When former paratrooper Scott Riley returns home from the war, he has
one aim—to meet the girl of his dreams, Cassie Wright. Cassie has been
his penpal, and his light at the end of the tunnel through most of his
war experience. He goes to her hometown on the Gulf Coast of Florida
with marriage on his mind only to find that she has other plans for her
future. A talented pianist, Cassie has been accepted to a prestigious
music conservatory in Jacksonville. Will she give up her dreams for
Scott, or will he chase hers?

A DIFFERENT TUNE is my third World War II-era historical. Read the four sneak peeks I’ve posted on my
MySpace Blog
or Visit A Different Tune Homepage for purchase info and to download a 2-chapter preview.

For more information about me or my other novels, please visit: LKCampbell.com

A bit about the story:

Five years after Irina’s death in a tragic accident, Gareth and Rhiannon still grieve for the loss of the woman they both loved. Every year, they stand vigil upon the anniversary of her death.

But when a freak occurrence brings Irina back from the grave for one night only, all three must face their regrets and unspoken passions–before darkness claims her forever.

It’s coming out January 29th (Monday!) along with the rest of the books in FP’s Valentine’s Day collection:

Sela Carsen: The Virgin Courtesan (historical; sensual)
Stacy Dawn: Apple of His Eye (contemporary; mainstream (aka nonerotic)
CJ England: Angel Eyes and Demon Lies (paranormal; carnal)
Dayna Hart: Wings of Love (fantasy; mainstream)
Loribelle Hunt: Be Mine (contemporary; sensual)
Crystal Jordan: Twice in a Blue Moon (paranormal; carnal)
Jennifer Leeland: Naughty Notions (contemporary; carnal)
JT Schultz: Cupid’s Target (paranormal; sensual)
Shelli Stevens: Cabin Fever (contemporary; carnal)

Healer-Priestess Shaiandral would rather let the Dragonlord rot than save him. But when her Healer’s oath is called upon, she must rise above the contention between their two shifter tribes and travel to his realm.

When she arrives, the Dragonlord Veren is dying of a magical toxin. Shaiandral makes a sacrifice of her own blood to raise the required energy for healing, but her actions raise a demon from Veren’s flesh. A demon that can become incorporeal at will and is impossible to fight.

The demon gives her two options. She can either sacrifice her Oath-bound virginity to heal Veren–or she can become his new host. At first Shaiandral refuses, but faced with a choice between losing her virginal power or losing herself, she chooses the lesser of two evils. Taking hold of the rising energies, she threads them into a complex weave. Just when she thinks she’s failed, Veren takes a deep breath, returning to life. Using the power released in her orgasm, Shaiandral forces the demon into a wilting red rose, binding him forevermore.

Except Shaiandral has caused more problems than she’s solved. The sacrifice has left her with a sudden, consuming lust–and an inexplicable attraction to Veren, a man she should hate. Now, a demonic infiltration threatens both their realms. Can they overcome their differences and work together to stop this threat before the demons take hold once more?

Interested in an excerpt? Clicky!

(I’ll have a contest of some kind up in a couple days or so. )

Emily is a good friend of mine that I’ve known for (literally) yeeeeeeaaaaaaars. I’m very happy to finally see her published, and I hope y’all will take a minute to check this out.

She set out to cure her insomnia, but the Goddess gave her dragons instead…

Cora Phillips has witchcraft in her blood, but she’s convinced she inherited the recessive rather than the dominant trait. Her mother and sister are the real heiresses to the Lune tradition; Cora has neither the interest nor the inclination to take up the Dragonkeeper mantle. Years ago, she left the New York City Witch lifestyle to the other women in her family, and said goodbye to all the velvet and lace. However, during a moment of insomnia-induced insanity, she agrees to come back to celebrate Christmas/Winter Solstice with her family.

It comes as a shock to all three women when Cora, through clumsy fumblings to “get in touch with her goddess” at her sister’s urging, calls a pair of ancient dragons into her meditation circle.

Cora swears it’s a mistake. Her mother swears it’s the correct course of events. Eventually, every Dragonkeeper issues the call to mate. Problem is, nobody expected Cora to summon even a single dragon, let alone two.

Before long, the dragons’ guardians come knocking, literally, and ruin any hope of politely apologizing and returning the creatures.

For more information–and to read an excerpt!–head on over to Freya’s Bower.

Congrats, and thanks to all for entering!

The Twilight Deception releases from Cobblestone Press today!

Here’s a brief blurb, if you’re interested:

When the FBI receives word of vampire-related murders, they order tough-as-nails resident witch Arielle Thompson to investigate. But the last thing Arielle expects is to have her butt saved by a friendly vampire who claims he’s tracking the master vamp responsible for the murders.

Despite her wounded pride, Arielle can’t help her inexplicable attraction to this sexy-as-sin vampire who calls himself simply “Jackson.” He reluctantly informs her that their enemy is far more powerful than reports said — and his powerbase is only increasing.

Arielle and Jackson must team up to stop him, before he grows too powerful to defeat.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Wanna buy it? Click here.

In celebration of the release, I’ll be holding a contest for a free copy of The Twilight Deception. Comment to this post with a number from 1-30, and the person closest to the number I’m thinking of wins.

November 17th.

Yay!

Okay. First off. I follow over 200 blog feeds via Google Reader. That’s not including the people I keep track of on my LiveJournal. That’s a lot of reading, but I skim a lot of the stuff that doesn’t interest me, so it really doesn’t impact my time as much as you might think. (Now, when I have stuff I want to comment on, that’s a different story. )

Over the past six months or so, there’s been a growing trend in promotion. Instead of or in addition to shameless self-promotion, get your friends, readers, relatives, whatever, to post your book info on their blog, group, etc.

I understand why writers do this. It’s important for them to get their names out, especially new writers (in the case of print publishing, they need to make a certain number of sales in order to remain published). I’ve posted promo for my friends before, too. (Though I’m bad about remembering to do so… like blogging in general. >_<)

But I've seen authors who already have several books out doing it, too.

Why does this annoy me?

The other day, I scrolled past what must have been over twenty blog posts that were exactly the same thing. All promo for one specific book. Now, it’s a book I intended to pick up anyway, because I liked the first and am very interested in seeing what the author does with the follow-up, but Lord and Lady… when I’m scrolling through some fifty-odd posts, it’s bloody annoying for them to all be the same thing. I’m still getting posts in my Google Reader for it.

Sure, you’re getting your name out in front of people, but I’m not so certain it’s in a “good” way. Speaking as a reader, if I’m annoyed enough at the constant promo spamming (and at a certain point, yes, I do consider it equivalent to “spam”) my feed reader, by the time the book comes out several months (in some cases) later, I may not remember why I was annoyed… but I’ll most likely remember the negative connection. It’s possible I might assume it was a bad advance review I read; my memory isn’t the greatest.

I also have to question the effectiveness of this method of promotion. In many cases, I can point to the vast majority of people posting these stock promotions to a single group of writers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but how many people outside that group are you going to reach? I’ve noticed that the promotions don’t tend to pass beyond the first circle of people doing them; that is, say you have the Original Author posting the request. Circle A (let’s say about 20-40 people) posts them. Unless there is some significant prize for posting the promotion (such as the case of Dear Author’s viral blog experiment a month or two back), it won’t advance to a Circle B.

Certainly, there are exceptions to this, and perhaps I’m wrong. If so, I would appreciate someone pointing out such, along with links. I don’t follow the entire blogosphere of romance writers; I don’t have that much time!

On the other hand… when J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened came out, I saw a lot of people blogging about how excited they were about the release, or how much they loved it when they read it. I saw probably as many posts about that as I have with the stock promotions. Again, speaking as a reader, I’m much more likely to pick up a book based on posts by people who have read the book vs. people who are posting for a prize. If there’s that many people getting excited about the book, then there’s probably a reason for it.

Frankly, I’d rather see that sort of promo in my feed reader, both as a reader–and as a writer.

Just my opinionated 2c, as usual.

Aug 5-7 :: Paranormal Event with Carrie Vaughn, LA Banks, CT Adams/Cathy Clamp, Gena Showalter, and Kelley Armstrong.

Aug 11 :: Jessica Faust: Bookends-inc agent in the Chatroom. 9PM EST

August 8-18 :: Getting To Know The Voices in Your Head Workshop with Jo Ann Ferguson/Jocelyn Kelley

Aug 18 :: Theresa Meyers: PR/Promo in the Chatroom.

August 25 :: Multi-cultural Authors Chat with Ann Christopher, Patricia Sargeant, Maureen Smith and Sophia Shaw