Giveaway winners

I love giveaways. Even cyber ones. It means everyone reading this is automatically excited already. I don't even have to do anything to snazz up this post to make it more interesting. You're already going to read it, looking to see who won. Easy for me. =P

I'm not going to draw it out and make you read a whole paragraph about what I watched on TV last night first, though it was tempting. I'm just going to give you your winners.

First prize goes to JEANNE!!!!

She will get a signed paperback of Dirty Blood, along with some cool bookmarks - one from me and one from Angeline Kace for Descended by Blood.

Thanks for entering, Jeanne, and I am so excited to have you as a new follower.

Second prize goes to Andrea (at The Bookish Babes). One of my awesome blogger friends. She will get the bookmark swag pack that includes a signed Dirty Blood bookmark, Descended by Blood bookmark signed by Angeline Kace, and the specially designed metal charm bookmark, made exclusively for Dirty Blood.

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you ladies!!!!

And thank you to everyone else who entered. There were well over 100 entries! I gained a lot of new followers on Twitter and Facebook and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. Thanks for entering and following. Feel free to drop me an email or comment anytime. And I always love to hear what you liked/didn't like about my books - or any book, for that matter. =)

Now that the excitement has been spread around, it's back to revisions for me. I am working hard at getting Cold Blood ready for you guys by Thanksgiving so I need to get back to it. This one's going to rock! I'll blog again when I come up for air.

Cover Reveal and most awesome giveaway!

I am so excited to be revealing the cover for Cold Blood, Book 2 in the Dirty Blood series!!!!

I am also thrilled to have such an awesome group of bloggers helping with the reveal on their own sites today. If you haven't already seen the cover, here it is:

And a list of the bloggers who are helping with the exclusive cover reveal are:

Taking It One Book At A Time
A Book Vacation
Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
Nightly Reading
A Life Bound By Books
JB Culture Shock
Sassy Book Lovers
A Diary of a Book Addict
All Things Books
A Cupcake & A Latte
The Unlocked Diary
Page Flipperz
1000 Plus Books To Read
Two Chicks On Books
Seeing Night Reviews
The Bookish Babes
AwesomeSauce Book Club

Thanks Bloggers!!

A very special thanks to Sara Reine for her creative genius in creating this cover. I love her and will never part with her!

Now, for the giveaway, because I want to make sure you are JUST as excited as I am...

There will be 2 prizes awarded. First place will receive a signed paperback of Dirty Blood, complete with the new cover art. Yes- it is finally available for purchase with the updated cover. The fun part is, the winner will literally receive the first EVER printed paperback with the new cover. Cool, right?! First prize also includes a signed bookmark by me along with a signed bookmark from Angeline Kace for Descended by Blood, which is the newest title available from Accendo Press. (You can check Descended By Blood out here, and get it now for just .99 for your Kindle.)

Here is a picture of the grand prize pack:

Second prize is a special set of bookmarks, which includes a signed bookmark by me for Dirty Blood, along with a signed bookmark by Angeline Kace for Descended by Blood, AND a special metal bookmark with a wolf print charm, designed by Krystle, my personal jewlery designer. (You can find her on Twitter as @KrystazziK)

Here's a picture of the second prize pack:

To enter the giveaway, you can leave a comment with your email address. For an additional entry, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads, or you can become a follower of Accendo Press' website. Just be sure to leave me a comment here that you've done so. The giveaway runs through 9/28 and the winner will be announced on 9/29.

Good luck! And I will leave you with a teaser of what's going on inside Tara's head for Cold Blood...

Wood Point Academy is not at all what I expected. For one thing, it looks like a cross between military school and Buckingham Palace. Everyone stares, the floors shine so bright you can see your reflection in them from a mile away, and no one smiles. Unless they're kicking your butt in the process. Which happens more often than not for the freshman. Lucky for them, my presence has just stolen the spotlight, and they get a break from the daily joys of hazing.

 

At least I've got plenty to take my mind off the fact that my psycho cousin, Miles De'Luca, keeps calling and declaring his love and promising to come for me just as soon as he's destroyed anyone standing in our way. Wes isn't going to like that idea.

 

So between Miles, Wood Point's evil welcoming commitee, and the drill sergeant hottie trainer from hell, I just keep asking myself, how did I end up here?

The future... this week.

Summer's over. I know, you don't want me to say it out loud. I don't want to, either. But it's a fact. The pool is closed, the water park shut down as of yesterday. No more 90 degree days. (Depending on where you live, weather is unpredictable here but I think we're done with that kind of heat) School is in and we're all adjusting to new schedules. Especially at my house. And I think I'm the crankiest of everyone because of it. Last year, my son went to FULL DAY pre-K and this year, he's HALF DAY kindergarten. (Booo!!! Hiss!!) So he goes to school at 11 and comes home at 2:30. Now regardless of how that sounds to you, its not a lot of time. Especially when I have to write 2k words a day or beat the crap out of myself for missing my mark (When you work for yourself, you become your own boss AND enforcer) and do errands, housework, calls, blah blah blah. So yeah, I don't like it because I have to choose between writing and grocery shopping - and when you're six months pregnant, that's a hard choice! My son is adjusting, too. He's trying to overcome the boredom of sitting around all morning because he's a morning person and still wakes up at 7am no matter what. And he can suddenly no longer take naps- yes, my 5 yr old still took naps up til now, don't be jealous. But being in afternoon kindergarten kind of kills that habit. It's just too late in the afternoon to attempt it after he gets home. So we're ALL adjusting to the no-nap part.

The worst part of it all is that as soon as we've all adjusted to said 'new' schedule, Herman the worm will make his appearance and shake it up and we'll have to adjust to a whole new schedule, because I don't care how 'in-control' you are, a baby will still always change your schedule. So yay for that.

See, I haven't written a blog post in forever and when I do, all I do is whine. Aren't you glad you stopped by to read?

Alright, alright, probably you want an update on the actual writing. So I'll give it to ya. First, Dirty Blood - the paperback - is almost ready for purchase, with the new cover. As soon as it is, I'll announce it. Hopefully by the end of the week.

Oh and don't forget DreamKiller has that combined volume now where you can get 1 and 2 together for only .99. For some reason, people are still buying the individual stories for .99 each instead of the combo volume. I don't understand it, but I'm not going to stop you from it, since I'm earning twice as much. Not my fault you aren't scrolling down the list, or whatever the reason for it is. =P

Here's the cover for the combined version so you know what to look for. And don't forget to read the prequel story from Lukas' POV under the short story tab above. It's my favorite price: FREE!

Now for Cold Blood. I am sooooo close to finishing the rough draft, it's ridiculous. I mean, like 3 chapters or something stupid. So I will - hopefully - finish it this week and get on with the revising. We're still shooting for a November release but it will probably be late November. I will keep you posted on that. Also - a cover. There is a cover and yes, it's beyond amazing, and no I'm not showing you yet. I am concentrating on finishing the words part of it all - kind of important when you're an author - and THEN we will have a HUGE cover reveal Extravaganza. Giveaways will ensue. Not sure what yet but it will be amazing. Rest assured.

More on that to come...

And while you're waiting, you should check out Descended by Blood by Angeline Kace because it will rock your socks off. And it's only .99 for the Kindle, for a limited time.

DreamKiller 2: Fight or Flight, Available Now

I'm so excited to tell you that DreamKiller 2: Fight or Flight is FINALLY available!

Here's what you can expect:

In the last thirty-six hours, Marlena’s entire world has shifted. She trusted her gut, and the word of a stranger, defied the only parental figure she’s ever known, and went up against the most powerful tracker the ‘Specials’ had ever seen.
Now Korian is dead and Azura has named Marlena the number one suspect. She has no choice but to hide. In a seedy apartment in the slums of downtown, Lukas tells her the truth about how she became an orphan.
It’s time to decide where Marlena will place her loyalty and whether the truth warrants a fight or flight…

DreamKiller 2: Fight or Flight is the second installment in the Specials Series. It is a short story totaling 10,000 words.

Fans of X-men and Heroes, this is for you! If you haven't already read DreamKiller 1: The Longest Day, both are available as an ebook for just .99 on Amazon and other retail stores. Check it out and be sure to leave a review when you're done. You can read a short except from DreamKiller 1 at the end of Dirty Blood or stay tuned for a teaser that will be posted here in a couple of days. If you want to read more about the series and where to find it, click the link above, for the DreamKiller page.

Oh and something new to check out: Angeline Kace, author of Descended by Blood, due out in August has posted pics of the new bookmarks she's ordered which are hotness (I'm Team Mirko!) and a counter that will countdown and let you know when the book will be available to purchase. You can check it out here and start deciding whether you will be Team Mirko or Team Jaren.

Also, if you haven't already, don't forget to click on the link in my sidebar for the Great Indie Summer Read Giveaway and enter to win one of dozens of free books and swag being given away this summer. Thanks, Katja, for hosting this!

Contest Winners and SPAM

 I am so excited to announce the winners of the Race to Reviews contest for Dirty Blood!! Just yesterday we reached a total of 20 reviews between the three major retails sites (Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and Amazon). I tallied entries and have your winners so the grand prize winner is ... *drum roll*.....

TEE!!!! 

Tee will receive the following books in her prize pack: a signed paperback of Dirty Blood, an ebook of Across the Galaxy, an ebook of DreamKiller 1 and 2, an ebook of Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby, an ARC ebook of Descended by Blood by Angeline Kace, and an ARC ebook of Cold Blood, due out this fall.

The two runner ups, who will receive two books of their choice from the list above are....

Heather at Nightly Reading

A Book Vacation

All winners must contact me by Thursday at midnight to receive their prize. You can email me at heatherhildenbrand@yahoo.com. Otherwise, we will go to the next runner up. *All winners were selected randomly with www.random.org.*

Congratulations!!!

Also, stay tuned for the announcement coming soon. I am in the process of uploading the 2nd installment of DreamKiller, my urban fantasy mini-series. DreamKiller 1 is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords for .99 and is a short story of about 5000 words. You can read about it by clicking on the DreamKiller tab above. The story follows Marlena, a 'special' with the ability to literally make her dreams come true, as long as she plays it out exactly as she dreams it. So far, she's been forced to use it to silence her enemies...

DreamKiller 2: Fight or Flight is longer (11,000 words I think) and should be available by the end of this week. I am making it available on its own first and then I will be offering a combined version for $1.99. I will let you know when it's available.

The Race to Reviews contest for Across the Galaxy is still running, so as I mentioned in my last post, if you would like a copy of it in exchange for an honest review, please email me and let me know. (ebook format only)

Also, just a quick headline I want to share. I read an article recently that even your Kindle is no longer safe from SPAM! There have been reports of people buying books, only to download it and open it on their Kindle and find it was an ad for something or a blank file. Here's what the article said:

"Reuters reports that spam has taken form on the self-publishing platform for several factors - namely how cheap and easy it is to republish another work already available, or to just make something else up altogether:

Aspiring spammers can even buy a DVD box set called Autopilot Kindle Cash that claims to teach people how to publish 10 to 20 new Kindle books a day without writing a word..."

You can read the entire article here. It's something to watch out for and honestly, makes me a little nervous. But I also think that Amazon is well aware and expect a solution or at the very least, some sort of tweaking or tightening up of their KDP publishing process very soon. What do you guys think?