Guest Blog & Giveaway: Darkness Rises by Dianne Duvall

UFI welcomes Dianne Duvall Author of The Immortal Guardians Series. Thanks for Joining us!!

Immortal Guardians Dream Cast

Thank you for joining me!  And thank you, Stacy, for letting me visit Urban Fantasy Investigations!  I’m so excited to be here today, celebrating the release of DARKNESS RISES, the fourth book in my Immortal Guardians series.  If you’re new to my series, it features powerful immortal warriors with special gifts who spend their nights hunting and destroying insane vampires who prey upon humans. 

That’s right:  Vampires are the bad guys in my series.  And Krysta Linz, the heroine of DARKNESS RISES, has dedicated her life to slaying every one of them she can find.  Each battle costs her much, but she refuses to abandon her quest . . . even when a tall, dark, and dangerous stranger with fangs and glowing eyes saves her life.
 

Étienne d’Alençon, a two-hundred-thirty-year-old Immortal Guardian has always admired strong women.  So when he sees Krysta, a mere mortal, hold her own in battle against multiple vampires who are far faster and stronger than she is, he is utterly captivated.  Needless to say, sparks fly.  J

Now, when I’m not writing, I work in the local independent film industry.  And, as I help directors cast their feature film, short film, and music video projects, I admit I often imagine casting my own projects . . . namely film versions of my books.  With each book’s release, I rethink my dream cast, adding new characters and tweaking it here and there.  So here is my dream cast for DARKNESS RISES:  

Sam Worthington and Cobie Smulders as
Étienne d’Alençon and Krysta Linz
Hero and Heroine of DARKNESS RISES

 Sam Worthington and Jennifer Garner as
Richart d’Alençon (Étienne’s twin) and Jenna McBride,
Hero and Heroine of “In Still Darkness,” PREDATORY

 Jake Gyllenhaal and Evengeline Lilly as
Sebastien Newcombe and Dr. Melanie Lipton
Hero and Heroine of PHANTOM SHADOWS

 Johnny Depp and Milla Jovovitch as
Marcus Grayden and Ami (Amiriska)
Hero and Heroine of NIGHT REIGNS

Michelle Monaghan and Hugh Jackman as
Sarah Bingham and Roland Warbrook
Hero and Heroine of DARKNESS DAWNS

Alexander Skarsgård and Djimon Hounsou as
Seth and David, the eldest and most powerful Immortal Guardians

Ryan Reynolds and Taye Diggs as
Chris Reordon (Head of the East Coast Division of the human network that aids immortals) and Darnell (David’s Second)

 Jeremy Renner and Kellan Lutz as
Cameron (Étienne’s Second) and Sheldon (Richart’s Second)

 Chris Hemsworth and Eva Green as
Zach and Lisette d’Alençon (Étienne and Richart’s sister)

Chris Evans as Sean Linz (Krysta’s brother)
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Dianne Duvall is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Immortal Guardians paranormal romance series.  Her debut novel, Darkness Dawns, was nominated for the RT Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Vampire Romance by RT Book Reviews and for Best Paranormal Romance—Vampire by The Romance Reviews.  Ensuing books in the series — Night Reigns, Phantom Shadows, and Predatory — have all been deemed Top Picks by RT Book Reviews, The Romance Reviews, and/or Night Owl Reviews.  Her latest release, Darkness Rises, has also been chosen as a Night Owl Reviews’ Top Pick. 

Dianne loves all things creative.  When she isn't writing, Dianne is active in the independent film industry and once even appeared onscreen as a machete-wielding maniac not unlike the vampires in her novels.

Find Dianne and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Darkness Rises
Immortal Guardians #4
Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, Audible

 Krysta is used to getting the drop on vampires. Her "special abilities" aren't much, but the plan is simple--she plays helpless pretty young thing to lure them in. Then her shoto swords come out and it's bye-bye, bloodsucker. Until one night she finds herself with an unexpected ally. He's a vampire, all right, but different. Mysterious. Handsome. And more interested in saving her skin than draining it.

Etienne has been an Immortal Guardian for two hundred years--long enough to know that Krysta is special. He can't stop thinking about her long legs, even more than her short swords. Then he discovers the vamps she's exterminating have friends in high places, and the Guardians are in danger too. He'll have to accept Krysta's help to save them. The stakes for a mortal are high. But the cost to his heart might be higher. . .

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International 

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Promo & Giveaway: First Bite by Dani Harper

First Bite

Dark Wolf #1

Geneva “Neva” Ross doesn’t want to die. But now that she’s been turned into a werewolf against her will, she’ll do anything to protect her family and friends…even if that means taking her own life.

After witnessing Neva’s leap from a high ledge, Travis Williamson—a Changeling with a dark past—uses his powers to save her life. He feels a connection to the strong-willed woman whose eyes flash that familiar Changeling green. While Neva is hospitalized, Travis risks everything to kidnap her, knowing the approaching full moon will put everyone in jeopardy.

Bickering constantly to hide their growing attraction, Travis and Neva run from the authorities…and from Neva’s sinister sire, Meredith de la Ronde. Meredith delights in creating new shape-shifters and compelling them to do her dark bidding; now Neva must join Meredith’s murderous wolf pack…or die.

Intensely suspenseful with deliciously sexy twists, this paranormal romance—the first in (the title of series)—intertwines sensual passion with an epic, thrilling battle between good and evil.

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Dani Harper is a newspaper editor turned paranormal author. There isn’t anything she likes better than exploring the supernatural — unless it’s writing sizzling and suspenseful romance. Of course, all of her stories have at least one foot in the netherworld!

Dani is the author of the Changeling series. CHANGELING MOON was chosen as a 2012 RITA Award Finalist in the Paranormal Romance Category by Romance Writers of America.

TWO brand new paranormal romance series begin this year. The Grim Series kicks off on August 6, 2013 with STORM WARRIOR. The Dark Wolf series is slated to begin October 15 with FIRST BITE.

Find Dani and her books

Website / Twitter / Facebook

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Tour Wide 

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New Release: 10/13-10/19

Tue Oct 15

 Across a Star-Swept Sea (For Darkness Shows the Stars #2) by Diana Peterfreund

 Copperhead (Ironskin #2) by Tina Connolly

 First Bite (Dark Wolf #1) by Dani Harper 

 Friends and Traitors (Slayers #2) by C.J. Hill, Janette Rallison 

 Fury of Desire (Dragonfury #4) by Coreene Callahan

 Revealed (House of Night #11) by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast

 Secret Unleashed (Secret McQueen #6) by Sierra Dean

 The Wolves of Midwinter (The Wolf Gift Chronicles #2) by Anne Rice

Happy Reading!

Guest post & Giveaway: Blood Destiny Series by Helen Harper

UFI welcomes Helen Harper Author of The Blood Destiny Series. Thanks for Joining us!!

Planning

By day I’m an English teacher and by night I’m an author – and there’s often somewhat of a dichotomy between the two.  While I teach how to write and develop many different text types, from arguments to discursive essays to reviews and so on, naturally creative writing is frequently a feature of lessons. 

There are numerous ways to approach original writing.  Sometimes I’ll introduce a particular stimulus: a piece of music or a news article perhaps.  Other times the writing will be focused around exploring a particular text that we are reading in class, such as an epilogue or the tale of a minor character.  However, always, absolutely always, I make sure that every student plans out what they are going to write first.  Without a clear narrative arc, students’ work often ends up becoming confusing or too full of plot twists.  There are also inevitably those who are unable to think of any other to tie up their stories than to finish with the disastrous old ‘I woke up and discovered it was all a dream’.

And yet, personally, I don’t plan.  I can’t.  When I was furiously typing away on my first novel, Bloodfire, I realised about halfway through that, what I’d started just for fun and made up as I went along, could actually genuinely be a real novel.  Therefore, in order to make sure that it could reach that dizzying potential, I suddenly planned out what was going to happen.  I reasoned that I’d have a better chance of making it to the end once I knew what the end was going to be. 

Unfortunately, from that point on, the writing became considerably less fun.  When I knew myself what was going to take place, my job as the writer just became filling in the blanks.  Painting by numbers. When I didn’t know what was going to happen next because I hadn’t planned it first, it was so much more exciting to see where the plot and the characters ended up.  It was almost as if I became a reader as much as a writer, watching the events unfold before my eyes, filled with suspense about the next move.

As a result, now I never have a clear idea about what is going to happen next.  I have various scenarios that whizz around my mind (usually, of course, when I’m trying to sleep), but I never firmly decide on any until I am deep within the physical act of writing.  This never gibes with what I tell my students to do and I often feel guilty about it.  However, I know through years of teaching experience that they need to plan for the story to be successful. 

 

Hmmm, I think I need to let go of that notion of success, even if only sometimes, in favour of achieving success in the sheer enjoyment of writing.  Maybe next week I’ll let them just write and see what happens…

 

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Helen Harper is an English teacher currently living abroad in Malaysia. As a long time reader of urban fantasy, she finally bit the bullet and began to develop her own series of novels.
Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland. "I always loved the escapism provided by those genres," states Helen. "No matter how bad life gets, you can always find a route out, even if only temporarily, in the pages of a good book."
The growth of urban fantasy fascinated her - the mix of reality and fantasy along with strong heroic female characters appealed from the very beginning, and inspired her to write her own.

Find Helen and her books

Twitter / Facebook

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Bloodfire
Blood Destiny #1

Mack might be, to all intents and purposes, a normal looking human, but she lives with a pack of shapeshifters in Cornwall in rural England after being dumped there by her mother when she was just a young child. She desperately wants to be accepted by her surrogate family, not least because a lot of them hate her for merely being human, but for some reason her blood just won't allow the transformation to occur.

With a terrible temper to match her fiery red hair, Mack is extraordinarily useful in a fight, and when her pack alpha is brutally and abruptly murdered, she swears vengeance. Unfortunately, his murder also draws in the Brethren - the leaders of the shapeshifter world - who will slaughter everyone in Mack's small rural pack if they discover her true identity. Unfortunately Corrigan, the green-eyed muscle-bound Lord Alpha of the Brethren, doesn't let much slip by him...

Bloodmagic
Blood Destiny #2

After escaping the claws of Corrigan, the Lord Alpha of the Brethren, Mack is trying to lead a quiet lonely life in Inverness in rural Scotland, away from anyone who might happen to be a shapeshifter. However, when she lands a job at an old bookstore owned by a mysterious elderly woman who not only has a familiar passion for herbal lore but also seems to know more than she should, Mack ends up caught in a maelstrom between the Ministry of Mages, the Fae and the Brethren.

Now she has to decide between staying hidden and facing the music, as well as confronting her real feelings for the green eyed power of Corrigan himself.

Bloodrage
Blood Destiny #3

Mack begins her training at the mages' academy in the hope that, by complying, the stasis spell will be lifted from her old friend, Mrs. Alcoon. However, once there, she finds herself surrounded by unfriendly adults and petulant teenagers, the majority of whom seem determined to see her fail.

Feeling attacked on all fronts, Mack finds it harder and harder to keep a rein on her temper. Forced to attend anger management classes and deal with the predatory attentions of Corrigan, the Lord Alpha of the shapeshifter world, her emotions start to unravel. But when she comes across a familiar text within the walls of the mages' library, which might just provide the clues she needs to unlock the secrets of her background and her dragon blood, she realises that her problems are only just beginning...

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EXCERPT  from Bloodfire:

I scanned the bookshelves again, looking for something that might help and was about to pull down a precious gems and magical objects encyclopaedia when I suddenly heard voices and the slamming of doors from outside.  Bugger it.  Quickly closing down the computer, I stepped back into the outer office.  I was just in time because Staines came suddenly striding in with the Lord Alpha.  They were in mid conversation and didn’t see me at first.

“My lord, we need to focus on the magic trail before anything else,” Staines was saying.

The Alpha growled.  “The mage can do that better than us.  It’s the tree markings that interest…” his voice trailed off as he saw me and his green eyes narrowed.

“Hi!” I said brightly.  “Found it!”  I held up my mug for display.

They both just stared at me silently.  I cleared my throat.  “Well, I’ll get out your way then.”  I moved towards the door but the Alpha was blocking it.  I looked up at him, waiting for him to move out my way.  He folded his arms and continued to stare.

I felt a flicker of irritation from my bloodfire.  This was my keep, not his.  I moved to brush past him, registering the hard steely curve of his muscles as my arm touched his.  He moved further back, blocking the doorway completely.

“Miss Mackenzie,” he drawled softly.

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Helen will award a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour 

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Promo & Giveaway: Unfinished Business by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Unfinished Buisness

Angela Panther #1

 First in a series by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson. This book is a chick lit novel with a paranormal element.

When Angela's mother Fran dies and comes back as a ghost, Angela's ordinary life turns into a carnival show, starring both Angela and her nosy, dead mother.

It seems Fran's got some unfinished business on earth and she's determined to get it done, no matter what.

When Fran returned, she reignited her daughter's long suppressed psychic gift, one she neglected to mention to Angela, and now Angela sees ghosts everywhere. And they won't leave her alone.

Fran can't help but stick her transparent nose where it doesn't belong, making Angela's life even crazier.

Now Angela has to find a way to keep her old life in tact and help the dead with their unfinished business, all while trying to keep her dead mother out of trouble. And it's a lot for one woman to handle.

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Carolyn Ridder Aspenson is the author of two chick lit, paranormal novels, Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel and Unbreakable Bonds An Angela Panther Novel, both of the chick-lit and paranormal genres.


Carolyn wrote her first novel, Unfinished Business shortly after her mother died. She felt the need to let the world know a little about the woman who drove her absolutely crazy but loved her with an intensity unknown to normal people. While some of the book is loosely based on events surrounding her mother’s death, the author swears she’ll never tell if she really did bury her mother illegally.
An avid fitness buff, Carolyn writes a monthly health and fitness column for Northside Woman Magazine. She also writes several freelance articles monthly for various Atlanta area media outlets including the Forsyth Herald, the Milton Herald, The Revue and News, The Johns Creek Herald, Countyline Magazine and many Internet publications. She’s written notebooks full of great story ideas from the entertaining people she’s met as a journalist. If you know one of them, don’t mention her books to them, just in case.

Carolyn has written hundreds of guest blog posts ranging from humorous to serious about varying aspects of parenthood and marriage.  She considers herself an expert at not being an expert parent and works to spread her lack of expertise far and wide.

Dogs and recently cats too, are Carolyn’s preferred companions. She loves their loyalty, unconditional love and inability to talk in a language of which she understands.

A native of Indiana, Carolyn called the northwest Chicago suburbs home for over eighteen years but because she hates the way snow sounds when she walks on it, has spent the last sixteen living in the Atlanta suburbs with her husband, son, two dogs and a cat. Her two daughters live close by.

One day she plans to retire to a peaceful home with a fantastic view of something other than her neighbor’s house with a plethora of rescue animals by her side. Oh, and her husband too.

Find Carolyn and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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 International

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Winners!!

Thank you to everyone who entered!!

The Winner chosen by Rafflecopter is.....

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Congrats!! I have emailed winner who has 48 hours to respond with mailing address or I will pick another.

Week in Review: 10/6-10/12

UFI's Week in Review is coming to you a day early because there is a post scheduled for tomorrow! Enjoy..

Books Ive Bought/received

* The Spider by Jennifer Estep- eARC- Edelweiss

* Dark Angel by TJ Bennett- eARC- Netgalley

* Cursed by Lizzy Ford- eARC- Netgalley

* Flamebound by Tessa Adams- eARC- Publisher/Netgalley

* Waking up Dead by Emma Shortt -eARC- Publisher

* Forgotten in Darkness by Zoe Forward- eCopy- Author

Books I Read

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong
Redemption by C.J. Barry
The Spider by Jennifer Estep

Reviews Posted

Darkness Rises by Dianne Duvall
Cold Blooded by Amanda Carlson

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* New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Guest Blog & Giveaway for Hell's Belle by Karen Greco

* Tuesday- Giveaway that goes with the release of Cold Blooded by Amanda Carlson.

* Wednesday- Interview and Giveaway for Wicked Misery by Tracey Martin

* Thursday- Guest blog for Blood Bound by Keshia Swaim.

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 * I love comments so if you see something you like (or not) please comment away and let me know.