Ye Pirates have struck. Avast!

And yea, verily, there came upon the author the day her first book was discovered on a pirate site, and there was much growling and cursing and gnashing of teeth.

And there was no contact form on the pirate site, and no way for the author to say unto them; "Take down my book, you thieving bastards," and there was further growling and cursing and gnashing of teeth, with added helplessness.

And the author felt like someone had kicked her puppy, and did share her woe with her family, and felt a little better, and shared some more with Facebook, and felt better still.

Some hours later, the author returned to the site, and verily, did notice something strange, for the google-link address thingy and the actual website name differed from each other. And the author declared, "WTF?"

And on the web page beside her book, now ravished and squished into a PDF format, and yea, still with the old cover on, the pirates were offering extra free copies to anyone who completed a survey, and the author started to giggle.

And yea, there is additionally a form on ye pirate website for anyone willing to steal a book to complete as compulsory registration, including home phone numbers and email addresses, and the author was surrounded by the golden glow of realisation. For verily, this particular pirate site is data mining, and those who give up their information shall be visited with an absolute plague of cold-callers, email spam, and a shit-load of junk mail.

And the author, still giggling, closed the web-page, and reflected that Karma can be a stone-cold bitch, but is usually well-deserved.

Here endeth the lesson.


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I've said it before folks, and I'll say it again: if you can't afford one of my books, drop me a message in the comments. I'm happy to send it to you. Pirate sites on the other hand… well, there's a reason pirates were considered the bad guys. Do you really want to be giving personal information to a bunch of guys who are happy to upload stolen work?

In other news, both WolfSong and Blood Moon Dance are on special from today, as part of Sci-Fi/Fantasy promo event over at Tim Flanagan's blog here. Although the event only required a price-drop on Amazon.com (99c) and Amazon.co.uk (79p), I've done it across the board, so if you have a kindle or smart-phone with the app, go ahead and click away. The individual book links are also on the side-bar of the blog.

Holiday Weekend Freebies, & the whole word count issue

I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only author on the planet that doesn't write by word count. Just about every writer I know has a set amount of words that must go down on the page daily/weekly/monthly/by the hour, and then either do the happy dance when the goal is reached, or flog themselves bitterly when they've missed it. 
I seem to have the paddling-pool approach: I open the document, splash around as much as I can, and then get out to clean up the mess. Word count is usually the last thing I look at.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One of these is that I write on my phone during the work commute, and that doesn't give me a word count. It's just me, headphones on, ignoring the sardine crush around me, happily tapping away at the screen until my stop. I won't know the word count there until I transfer it to the laptop. This can be a bit awkward when writing shorts; the piece I wrote for Allegories of the Tarot had to be edited down by about 1K, and I had to kill a couple of nice little scenes, but it was a stronger piece for the edits. I tend to suffer diarrhoea of the keyboard, and while that can work in a book-size piece, it hurts a short.
The other reason, I guess, is that I'm a pantser, not a plotter. I have no idea what's going to happen in a story until I write it. (I've tried the plotting thing, and it was the most awkward, dreary bit of cardboard ever to hit my trashcan.) I know the story's going well when I re-read the last part and go "Cool! What happened next?" I write until the story is done, and some worlds write long (everything on the Crescent, by the looks of things) and some of them write shorter-ish (Blue Moon Detectives, although that may be about to change.)

I'm quite happy with writing this way, although it does sometimes feel a bit awkward when you're chatting to other writers and they mention their word count for the day, and then ask what yours was. Shrugging and saying you got a couple of chapters in sometimes gets you the same kind of look as the strange guy who sometimes wonders down Kentish Town road with his underwear on his head. 

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In the spirit of the long weekend, I have Blood Moon Dance and Quarter the Moon free on kindle for today and tomorrow. If you don't have a kindle, but want a bit of lip-smacking free-story goodness, hit me up in the comments and I'll happily send you a PDF. Amazon links and descriptions to whet your appetite:

UK SITE :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Dance-Tales-Crescent-ebook/dp/B00CNCUI1Y
.COM SITE :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CNCUI1Y

 Serial killers and hawks don't get on well.

A small logging village on the outskirts of the Crescent is being terrorized, and an innocent family is being blamed for the murders.

In this fresh adult take on the Red Riding Hood myth, Amber and Jadah have to match their wits against the killer before time runs out, and the killer finds another victim - or the village turns on the werewolves that have lived amongst peacefully them for years.

"This is the blood dance, this is the end dance, and the outcome is death." -Amber.


Blood Moon Dance is a novella of around 17K, and takes place shortly after the events of WolfSong, but can be read as a stand-alone piece.

This book contains strong language and scenes of violence.

UK SITE:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quarter-Moon-Blue-Detectives-ebook/dp/B0088QK72E

.COM SITE:
http://www.amazon.com/Quarter-Moon-Blue-Detectives-ebook/dp/B0088QK72E

The first Blue Moon Detectives collection. Two brand new tales from the Blue Moon Detectives characters, plus Basement Blues and Die Laughing.

House Mates - When Astrid moves into her new apartment, she has to deal with an unwanted house mate, and the dark secret she's hiding.
Yes, Astrid, There is a Santa - What happens when a centuries old vampire discovers that Santa is real?
Blue Moon Detectives - Saving the (undead) girl shouldn't be this hard...
Die Laughing - The gods are back in town - and they don't play nice. Billy and the gang find themselves fighting a Norse god with a bad habit of killing comedians.

New WolfSong cover, Blood Moon Dance goes live, & Allegories of the Tarot updates.

The new WolfSong cover is done, and I think it complements Blood Moon dance quite well. I'm liking this theme, and I already know what the Raven's cover will look like, so I may work on that a bit this long weekend.

You can grab your copy here on the Amazon.com site, and here from the UK site. NB - there are no changes to the book itself; this is purely a cover change, so don't panic.



Blood Moon Dance has gone live today. It clocked in at around 17.4K, so it's a nice little chunk of story - something to get your teeth into, but not over-long. Jadah seems to have developed a streak of snark a mile-long, and she uses it a lot. She's becoming one of my favourite characters to write. I have a great deal of fun with that ghost, and she kindly gave me a character interview that'll be posted over the next couple of days.

It's a re-working of the Little Red Riding Hood fable, Crescent style, which means that everything gets turned upside down, and inside out. As usual, lots of blood, gore, and sharp pointy objects abound.

You can grab your copy from the Amazon.com site here, or the UK version over here. This one comes with a  strong language and scenes of violence warning, which is pretty par for the course in Amber's world.

Seriously folks - these are not really grandma-friendly or kid friendly books. If you like horror and dark fantasy, you'll be fine. If you don't want characters saying anything stronger than "poot" when things go pear-shaped, you may be in for a shock. 

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With 30 days of fundraising left, Allegories of the Tarot is going strong. The goodies up for grabs on the Indiegogo page are really impressive, and there's a very special perk coming up. The kind that makes you go Oooh! Shiny! and stroke your p.c. screen in inappropriate ways (although that may just be me). 
Being invited to write for the anthology was the reason I ended up with Blood Moon Dance, so it's really, really cool to see it doing well and getting the support it already has. I can't wait to read the rest of those stories.

Cover Art Reveal & Give Away- Blood Moon Dance

Blood Moon Dance will be released next week. Here's a sneak peek at the cover art for you.

The WolfSong cover will be re-designed on a similar theme; although I love the old cover, I'd like to see if a new, simpler version has an impact. 

If you'd like an ARC copy of Blood Moon Dance, I have 10 e-book versions to give away - let me know in the comments. 

Blood Moon follows straight on from WolfSong, but can also be read as a stand alone; it features Amber and Jadah investigating a serial killer mystery in a village close to the border of the Crescent.

Blood Moon Dance - sneak peek

Blood Moon Dance is a short novella set in the WolfSong universe.  It follows the events in WolfSong, and concerns Amber and Jadah getting caught up in a little bit of murder and intrigue in a village on their way out of the Crescent. 

It should be up on Amazon over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt to whet your appetite.

The usual caveats apply - things may change on the final edit, and strong language is definitely involved. The scene below is from the second chapter, where Amber gets to meet a family of werewolves. Tension and hi-jinks commence.

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“Welcome to my house, hawk,” Grandmother said. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Amber perched casually on the edge of a stool with her back against a wall. “You have a lovely home,” she said.

“Thank you. Although I regret that our hospitality has been somewhat lacking so far.”

“May I speak plainly?” Amber asked, and watched the woman’s eyes veil.

“You may.” The werewolf jerked her head at Kier, who stepped back out into the passage.

Amber leaned forward and folded her hands over the top of her knee. “I don’t harm children. I don’t kill unless it’s necessary, and I especially don’t kill people just because they’re afraid of me. But I’m guessing you knew that already.”

Grandmother said nothing.

“Are we doing with the tests?” Amber asked quietly. “You sent your lad to ask for aid, so you knew cursed well what I am. I’m not interested in a pissing match with an alpha.”

Grandmother blinked.

“So tell me, before we move onto other things, why you put a child with a bow that’s too big and heavy for her into your pantry, with her sire in a room I was about to walk through, and told her how big and bad and scary I am?” She felt her hair lift and stir and didn’t fight it. Some of the stories were true, and she was annoyed right now. Not truly angry, or there would have been blood on the floor right now, but she was hot and sweaty and tired, and she had no interest in proving herself here. She’d done her time on the battlefield.

Grandmother sighed. “There is a story that we heard, here on the edge of the Crescent. It tells of a hawk who slew her mate because he was infected with the wolf virus.” She watched Amber carefully. “Then there is a second story. It tells of a hawk who welcomed a wolf into her squad, and fought by his side when his own kind disowned him. And both these stories have been added to recently, and the bards have mentioned that the hawk now travels through the world.”

“The world is a great deal bigger than the Crescent,” Amber told her.  “And the average bard is so full of shit they squeak turning corners.”

The werewolf watched her with those half-closed eyes and waited. Amber sighed, and felt her hair subside.

“Why a spatula?” she asked.

“What?”

“Why a spatula? Sam was in a kitchen full of knives, heavy pots, and a bunch of other stuff. Why was he holding a spatula? Tell me, and I’ll tell you which version of the tale is true.”

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For a bit of background, although I've been working on the full-length follow-up to WolfSong, this little story was originally triggered by the anthology theme I was invited to submit to. (Check it out here on Indiegogo - we have funky videos and everything.) I ended up writing the first draft on my phone on the way to and from work (free word apps; gotta love 'em) and then of course, it ended up being way, waaaay too long. But I liked it, and it just kept going, so it's ended up hitting novella status instead of the 3K mark. I can live with that - and there are worse ways to spend the daily commute in London.