Realms Faire 2013 - Drench-a-Wench

Welcome to the Realms Faire!

We're so happy to see you here. There's good food, strong drink, fun games, great prizes, and sexy knights.

HURRAH!

I'm proud to host the Drench-a-Wench / Soak-a-Bloke event.

 This event is simple and gives you a chance to dunk someone with blog love.

Each day, one lucky person is chosen by committee. I'll direct you to their blog, and you leave them a supportive, encouraging, helpful, or silly comment. None of the people chosen will know they're about to get soaked with blog love. Go on and make someone's day!

At the end of each day, there will be a drawing from those who commented on the dunkee's blog. You have 24 hours from when I put up my post to leave a comment and be included in the giveaway. You could win a digital copy of The 13th Floor Complete Collection and and ebook by M. Pax of your choice! Winners will be chosen by Random.org.

At the end of the week, those people who have commented on ALL five dunkees' blogs will be entered into a grand giveaway. This giveaway has one big prize:
A 50 page critique by me.
PLUS ebooks from M. Pax, Julie Flanders, Ellie Garratt, Laura Eno, and me.

Let's start with our first lucky wench!

 Throw some blog love at Mina Lobo and check out her new book, THAT FATAL KISS.

Don't forget to check out all the terrific games happening during the Realms Faire this week.
Joust ~ Stockade Brigade ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Masquerade Parade ~ Collective Performance ~ Castle Jumble ~ Dragon Hunt

And most especially don't forget to head on over to the Joust to cheer for my champion, Sir Xanthus Ehrensvard.
Remember to use at least one of the three key words:
Xanthus Ehrensvard, 13th, and cutpurse.

Review for That Fatal Kiss

Blurb:
When it comes to love, sometimes you have to cross the line...

Feared by mortals for his inexorable power, and loathed by his fellow Greek gods for the same, Hades rules the Underworld alone. A stark eternity looms before him until he discovers Persephone. Struck by the youthful goddess’ beauty, kindness, and spirit, he must have her. But Hades believes Persephone could never love him, and so he conspires with his powerful brother, Zeus, to take her by force.

Persephone too seeks a mate but her possessive mother, the goddess Demeter, frustrates her husband hunting. Then Hades abducts Persephone, tearing her away from the Upperworld she loves to reign with him in the dank depths below. Though outraged, Persephone cannot deny the desire ignited within her by the dark lord’s touch. And even as she hopes that Demeter will unearth her, Persephone aches to surrender to the heat in Hades’ immortal soul.

My review:
Hades rules the Underworld alone in the darkness. Only one light has ever attracted him. For years, he has watched Persephone and fallen in love from afar. He must have her as his wife. Conspiring with her father Zeus, Hades abducts the beautiful goddess and whisks her away the Underworld. Persephone is a creature of the light. She's goodness and compassion with a hidden wildness and streak of willfulness. She won't submit to Hades so easily even though she feels a powerful pull toward him. Hades struggles to show her how much he loves her, and she doesn't make it any easier on him. Will Persephone fall for the dark lord's charms or be one of the few to escape from the Underworld?

I'm already a fan of Greek mythology, and I love this telling of Hades and Persephone's tale. Even though I knew how it was going to end, the journey was amazing. I was sucked into the story right from the beginning and found it hard to put down my Kindle until the end.

What made this book so great is the characterization. The reader gets to see the gods as they've never been seen before. Hades isn't the cold and forbidding dark demon as some portray him. He's isolated yet yearns for companionship, demanding yet compassionate, and totally hot! I became enchanted by him. He's an Alpha male, but unlike many others in the genre. Persephone can be young and rash, but she's smart, strong, and sympathetic. The perfect complement to Hades. I especially liked her relationships with the other goddesses, particularly Hecate and Athena.

THAT FATAL KISS is a phenomenal debut for Mina Lobo. Her romance sizzles and her worlds are vivid with life. This is a love story I highly recommend.

You can purchase the book here:

Amazon * B&N * Smashwords * Paperback at CreateSpace

Stalk Mina here:

Blog * Twitter * Facebook * Tumblr * Goodreads

E-book available for purchase at:
Amazon | B & N | Smashwords
Trade Paperback: Createspace - See more at: http://www.minalobo.com/p/my-writing.html#sthash.SvjnMOGW.dpuf

E-book available for purchase at:
Amazon | B & N | Smashwords
Trade Paperback: Createspace - See more at: http://www.minalobo.com/p/my-writing.html#sthash.SvjnMOGW.dpuf

Teaser Tuesday with Curse of the Bane and That Fatal Kiss cover reveal

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is the second book in Joseph Delaney's The Last Apprentice series. I'm loving this one even more than the first, and the first one was awesome. It's MG dark fantasy fiction. I love the world Delaney has created, but even more so the supernatural creatures. Wow. Original and frightening!

 

Here's your teaser:

What I have lost, or might yet lose, I dare not think about. Beauty is a terrible thing; it binds a man tighter than a silver chain about a witch. (page 43)

Now for Mina Lobo's magnificent cover reveal!

Mina Lobo has long held a passion for Greek mythology. The story of the goddess Persephone's marriage-by-kidnap to Hades, Lord of the Underworld, has particularly fascinated her, and thus came about Mina's debut novel, That Fatal Kiss. Coming September 2013, the revisionist tale features a fiery and noble heroine, a handsome and broody hero, and some heated, earth-shakin' lovin'!

Given Mina's self-professed neurotic nature, it took her and cover artist Steven Novak a few go-arounds before settling on the cover design for That Fatal Kiss. It had to be curiously compelling, slightly spooky, and yet super sexy—and so it is!

The Book:

Feared by mortals for his inexorable power, and loathed by his fellow Greek gods for the same, Hades rules the Underworld alone. A stark eternity looms before him until he discovers Persephone. Struck by the youthful goddess’ beauty, kindness, and spirit, he must have her. But Hades believes Persephone could never love him, and so he conspires with his powerful brother, Zeus, to take her by force.

Persephone too seeks a mate but her possessive mother, the goddess Demeter, frustrates her husband hunting. Then Hades abducts Persephone, tearing her away from the Upperworld she loves to reign with him in the dank depths below. Though outraged, Persephone cannot deny the desire ignited within her by the dark lord’s touch. And even as she hopes that Demeter will unearth her, Persephone aches to surrender to the heat in Hades’ immortal soul.

The Teaser:

“Enough,” Hades said, closing the distance between them. “I have taken you with your father’s consent, as custom allows. You are in my kingdom, under my rule, and if you have any care for your continued well-being, you will get into my bed. Now.” And with the removal of the pins that held together the black cloth about his waist, he stood naked before her.

The anger warming Persephone clashed with another fire that roared to life within her. She choked on a breath and turned her face from him. “Be warned; I will resist you with the full force of my being, through violent means, if necessary.”

His large, unyielding hands encircled the soft flesh of her upper arms as he said, “If you must. Though your surrender to me would prove more satisfying to us both.”

The Author:

Mina Lobo has a lot of Scorpio action going on in her natal chart, which makes for a rather sybaritic and lust-driven Sagittarian. She aims for a wildly successful future as a writer of dark and whimsical romance while dodging the slings and arrows of her outrageous teenaged son, who's buggered off to college (hence the "Lite" in her Twitter handle, below). She enjoys comedic horror and alt rock, goth, & new wave music, as well as quality Belgian chocolates.

Mina invites you to keep abreast of updates regarding That Fatal Kiss, as well as the development of any new neuroses, by stalking her at her usual haunts:

Her blog: Some Dark Romantic
On Facebook: mina.lobo.1
On the Twitter: @GothMomLite
And GothMomLite Will Tumblr For Ya as well

The Big Reveal Bloghop

A big thank you to the wonderful hosts of The Big Reveal Bloghop, Mina Lobo and David Macaulay. What a great opportunity to reveal my theme for the 2013 A to Z Challenge. I also love to peek at other bloggers' themes and see what's coming for next month. This is a bloghop, so please visit the other participants.

Last year's challenge was a fantastic one. I received such a huge response about my story, I self-published it under the title FEARLESS. It's free to download if you haven't read it yet.

I've also gotten a lot of requests to do a sequel. As much fun as it was to write about Abby, Demetrius, and Tawa, I will not be writing any more stories about them at this time.

BUT the world of the Fearless (warriors who battle monsters spawned by children's imaginations) is awesome. There are many Fearless in the world who have their own stories.

This year for the challenge, I will be writing about another warrior. Her name is Danielle, and she's a little wilder than sweet Abby. Her guide Fenn is a straight laced fellow who doesn't tolerate any funny business. Except, being an inanimate object, he can't stop Danielle from doing what she wants. There are children that need to be saved, monsters galore, and a gorgeous single dad.

Last year, I posted the entire story. While readers loved it, I had one complaint: the posts were too long. One thing I greatly appreciated about some of the posts I read last year was that they were short. I could get through several blogs when the posts were 200 words or less. There were blogs that had longer posts that I thoroughly enjoyed, but there were also several clever and entertaining short posts.

I started writing Danielle's story. I meant for it to be shorter than FEARLESS, but it's not going to be. So I had to sit back and make a decision. Do I post the entire story and have posts near 1000 words long, or should I try something different with it?

I'm going to take a chance and go for shorter posts. I'll be posting snippets of 200 to 300 words from the story. I'll be giving you the tale from beginning to end, but just bits. I'm nervous about this decision. I don't want to let anyone down after last year's challenge, but I hope everyone will still love to read it. It will be a challenge in itself to pick out the right snippets to keep readers interested and give the full feeling of the story.

Good luck to everyone participating in this year's A to Z Challenge. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

You have less than one day left to enter The Harbinger blog tour giveaway for your chance to win the first four ebooks of the 13th Floor series!