Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Peace & Goodwill!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 
Check out this new holiday read from Lee Strauss.
 Leave a comment to receive FREE books from Lee! 
(Details below.)

PEACE & GOODWILL
 a Christmas novella
by Lee Strauss


So good to fall in love
So hard to say good bye




Peace & Goodwill
#4 in a connected book series
(no need to read the others to enjoy this)


Belle gets the best Christmas present ever, a man in uniform! Ian is a soldier home on leave. Neither of them have any idea how good it will feel to fall in love or how hard it will be to say good-bye. 

Anna is spending the holidays alone again with only her faithful dog Angel to keep her company. She can’t afford to pay the rent and her landlord is threatening to kick her out. At least she’s finished with her chemo treatments. She can be thankful for that. Plus, there’s Rhys, the handsome visitor with kind eyes. 

One fateful, cold and snowy night a chance encounter changes everything. Love is lost. Love is found. Life will never be the same. 

Early Buzz:

This is truly a stand alone novella. You don't need to be familiar with any of the other stories in the series. It's a quick, feel-good read which is perfect for Christmas! - Melanie, Amazon Reviewer

This one will tug at your heart strings. - Aimee Brown, Amazon Reviewer

You can trust me when I say that it is not lacking in the emotions. Oh no! They are there. Sweet and sad all rolled into this surprising little novella.

5 Pulls At Your Heart Stars! - Mandy @ireadindie - Amazon reviewer


BUY NOW!



Haven't read the other books in the series? No problem!




Lee is giving away iBooks promo codes for Flesh & Bone and Heart & Soul (Sun & Moon is already free!) to everyone who asks for one in the comments! 

Yes, THERE IS A SONG! Listen to the featured original Christmas song HERE!




Saturday, November 15, 2014

Release Day! THE MAGICIAN

The second book in my new, VIRTUAL ARCANA series is now available! 
 I'm giving away ebooks, and a grandprize of a signed copy of season 1 plus a custom VIRTUAL ARCANA, computer chip necklace. 

Visit ONCE UPON A BOOK BLOG (my master blogger/VIP host) 
to learn more about THE MAGICIAN--including a pic teaser and review--and enter both of my contests.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Release Day for my new series, VIRTUAL ARCANA!

Today, I'm releasing the first book in my new series, Virtual Arcana. 
The Matrix meets The Notebook (with a sprinkle of The Giver). 
Book 0: The Fool is FREE.

It is free on most retailers, so download your copy and give it a try. 
(Even if you don't want to read it, you could still download it for free. It would help my rankings and earn you lots of good karma points. Don't we all need extra good karma points?) 





Virtual Arcana will release serial style, meaning short episodes (averaging 15-20k) will be published frequently instead of waiting months or a year between each long novel.
Each episode will be named after one of the major arcana cards of a tarot deck.
Season 1- Episode List

0- The Fool
1-The Magician
2-The High Priestess
3-The Empress
4-The Emperor
5-The Hierophant
6- The Lovers
It’s an experiment for me as an author and for my readers. If Virtual Arcana develops a good following I’ll continue with season 2 and 3. That would mean 22 total episodes, one for each of the 22 major arcana tarot cards.
Summary of Virtual Arcana:

In a faraway future, Kelsey Zellar is starting her senior year at yet another school thanks to her twin sister’s troublesome obsession with outlawed virtual reality games.


Every school they’ve ever attended is pretty much the same: lunchroom drama, rich kids binging on enhancement candies, and classmates rallying for or against the government’s strict control over everything from entertainment privileges to caffeine consumption.


Unlike her sister, Kelsey follows the rules and keeps her nose out of trouble and politics while sniffing out her next flavored latte and favorite novel. But when Kelsey meets a charming book connoisseur, and accepts his offering of a tarot card, she takes the first step toward two new addictions: the guy of her dreams, and his illegal dealing of virtual escapes into her beloved storybooks.


Kelsey straddles the worlds of fiction and reality, but is she a fool for believing in her own happy ending?
I realize some of my readers don’t/won’t care for episodic storytelling, so of course there will be the option to wait until the first season is complete and read all the episodes straight through as one full-length novel. But I wanted to offer my new series as a serial for those readers who dislike waiting so long to read more.
To celebrate, I'm giving away FOUR ebooks of the second episode: The Magician
I'm also running a second GRAND giveaway that will be open until the last episode releases.  
You can enter to win a signed copy of Season 1 (NOT an ebook, but the real kind with paper pages) AND a custom designed Virtual Arcana necklace. 
(Photo is an example not the actual customized VA necklace.)

Open internationally.
Enter using the Rafflecopters below.
GIVEAWAY #1

GIVEAWAY #2

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

GRASPING AT ETERNITY is FREE!

Book 1 of my Kindrily series, Grasping at Eternity, is now free on most retailers! 
To my international peeps, hang tight, it will be free in your countries soon. 
(Just waiting for price match to kick in.)

I'm shocked that so many have already snagged a copy, but SUPER grateful for every download. The surge has allowed me the honor of making the top 10 list on Amazon for YA Paranormal & Fantasy Romance. I feel like a rockstar hanging out with some of my fav authors like Sarra Cannon, Addison Moore, and Chanda Hahn. Go grab their books too if you don't already have them!
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Teen-Young-Adult-Paranormal-Urban-Fantasy-Romance-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/7006650011/ref=zg_bs_fvp_p_f_7006650011?_encoding=UTF8&tf=1

Any help spreading the word is SO, so, sooooooooo much appreciated. 
You can tweet (or retweet me),  
tell friends, and/or most importantly--download a copy of your own!

Here are free links!




Have a fabulous week! And Happy Reading!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Vampires and Zombies!

Halloween is rapidly approaching. To get in the mood, how about a great zombie and vampire book? Check it out!

Bad Blood by Nicky Peacock – Out Now!

Synopsis:
“I am Britannia. I am your protector. I will fend off the hungry hordes of undead hands that reach toward you. I am your steadfast defender. I will stand between you and the zombie masses as they try to taste your flesh. I am strong, unyielding, and dedicated to your survival. All I ask from you… is your blood.” 
A five-hundred-year-old bloody game of vengeance will need to be put on hold if vampires are to survive the zombie uprising. Britannia and Nicholas, bitter enemies and the only two surviving vampires left in London, have to work together to save un-infected humans and deliver them safely to a vampire stronghold in the Scottish Highlands. Unable to drink the zombie ‘bad blood’, the remaining vampires need the humans to stay alive. But will the vampires tell the survivors who they are and what they want from them? Will Britannia be able to hold back her vengeance for the greater good? Is survivor Josh the reincarnation of Britannia’s murdered true love? And can she bring herself to deliver him to the ‘safe’ hold? Survival instincts run deep, but bad blood can run deeper.

Buy Links
About the Author:


I guess I’ve always been a storyteller, not in a ‘liar liar pants on fire’ kind of way, although I do work in advertising! When I was little, kids would crowd around me in the playground and I’d tell them tales of blood soaked horror filled with vampires, werewolves, ghosts and more. Yes, most would consider me a disturbed child, but my playmates couldn’t help themselves, they’d huddle around me every break time like an ancient tribe feeding off the fear; and that’s how I learned that horror stories hold a certain power, no matter what some might say, everyone is addicted to a good scare, especially if it is somewhat rooted safely in unrealistic beings… or are they unrealistic?
 Writing was really a natural progression. Right now I’m obsessed with writing: a YA Urban Fantasy novel, a Paranormal Romance novella series, and several short horror stories! So I’m currently living in a functional fiction coma – and loving it!
I’ve so far been published in 5 countries: USA, UK, Australia, Ireland and Canada and had short stories included in 40 anthologies with over 17 publishers.

Excerpt:
We ran to the hospital. On the way, we encountered hardly anyone, alive or dead. Where were they all? When we arrived at the hospital car park, I understood. Zombies were pack animals. A massive crowd of them were crammed in and around the main building like they were waiting for a concert to start, all barely paying attention to their surroundings and seemingly swaying against the force of gravity. The other thing was the smell. When watching horror films filled with shuffling zombies, the horror came from their ghastly looks—the reminder that death has a tight grip on us all, well, most of us. But what the filmmakers should focus on—if they could—was the acidic rank odor zombies gave off. They had been dead barely twenty-four hours. It took a normal human body at least thirty-six hours to really start to smell, and that was with a vampire’s heightened senses. These guys smelled like they’d been out in the sun for three weeks covered in rubbish and besieged by wily maggots. They were mostly intact, though. Maybe this hospital had been Zombie Ground Zero. Most had turned so quickly their comrades hadn’t had time to feed.
“Maybe we should try a less populated target.” Nicholas twitched his nose and turned away from me to dry retch.
“Maybe you should grow a pair.”
“Maybe you should act like a lady.” He now had his hands on his hips, squaring up for yet another argument.
“Acting like a lady isn’t going to help now, is it? What do you want me to do? Drop my handkerchief in front of the zombies and watch them fight one another to scoop it up for me? Moron!”
“Always to the ‘nth degree with you, isn’t it?”
“Shut up. Look, the doors are holding, and they’re outside, not inside, which means there must be some people left in there alive to have barricaded this place so tight.”
“Or maybe there are just more zombies in there.”
“Well, there’s definitely a blood bank in there, and that’ll help matters no end!”
Nicholas looked thoughtful then nodded. He of course didn’t want to actually say aloud that I’d had a good idea. “So, how do we get past them?”
I assumed it was a rhetorical question, so I started down to the car park entrance, where most of the zombies were mobbing. I opened the outer door as quietly as possible.
“Ladies first,” Nicholas whispered in my ear.
“I thought we’d agreed I wasn’t a lady.” And with that, I shoved him as hard as I could into the throbbing throng of zombies.
Published by Evernight Teen http://www.evernightteen.com/

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Update, and My Apology For the Delay



I had high hopes for this fall. I had planned on releasing the last book in my Sea Monster Memoirs series, Sacred Seas. I planned on releasing the first episode of my newest series, Virtual Arcana, and then a new episode of that series every couple of weeks. Planned, planned, planned.

And then The Funk hit me—hard.
Many writers might be able to relate. You set goals, you’re excited about new projects, and then something happens, or an array of things happen, and months pass in the blink of an eye along with your plans. You have no finished books. Heck, you don’t even have a rough draft. And you worry that besides letting yourself down, you will also let down your readers.
*sad sigh*

That’s my current predicament.
Sacred Seas should be releasing in the next couple of months, but the truth is it’s a mess in my head and an even bigger mess on the page. It hasn’t “come alive” yet, and it barely has bones, much less a heart and soul. Therefore, it can’t be rushed to publication. That wouldn’t be fair to my readers, the characters, or me. 

My Virtual Arcana series was doing great for a while. I have the first two episodes written and edited and the third one almost finished. BUT (the big but) the story feels...wrong. Something is missing. Or a lot of somethings are missing, and I can’t figure out how to fix it so that I fall in love with the story again. My beta readers don’t seem to be in love with it either, which is a huge red flag that I can’t ignore.
So, this is my lame explanation as to why Sacred Seas will be delayed until this spring.
And why Virtual Arcana is in a holding pattern.
I’m still hoping to release the first episode of Virtual Arcana, The Fool, in the next month or two, but first, the rest of the season needs some work. I need to be in love with the story again, and right now I’m not even infatuated with either of the projects I’m writing. 

To any readers who I’ve let down, I’m so sorry. Sacred Seas will be released eventually, I promise, but not until I’m happy with it. I refuse to end the series with a meh book. My readers and sea peeps deserve much better than that. 

I haven’t given up. I’m not slacking off. I’m just plowing through, begging the characters and story to come alive and help me make them the best they can be. Thanks for understanding.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Cover reveal for my new series! VIRTUAL ARCANA


I'm so excited to reveal the cover for my new series, Virtual Arcana.
Ready? Here it is! Woo hoo! 
I love the cover because it represents the story so perfectly—a blend of old-fashioned and techy, romance and magic, reality and illusion, The Notebook meets The Matrix (with a sprinkling of The Giver). Some friends saw an early sneak peek and asked if the girl was real or a CGI (computer-generated image).  That put a huge smile on my face because that is the perfect question for this series.” *insert mischievous smile here*


I want to give huge thanks to my friend and talented cover designer, Steve Graham of  the INFINITY CREATIVE (www.TheInfinityCreative.com) for making my virtual reality-esque vision a beautiful reality. I mean, look at that font. Steve, you're a bad ass.

Virtual Arcana will release this fall serial style, meaning short episodes (averaging 15-20k) will be published frequently (official schedule TBA), instead of waiting 6-12 months between each long book in a trilogy.
Each episode will be named after one of the major arcana cards of a tarot deck.

Season 1- Episode List

0- The Fool
1-The Magician
2-The High Priestess
3-The Empress
4-The Emperor
5-The Hierophant
6- The Lovers

It’s an experiment for me as an author and for my readers. If Virtual Arcana develops a good following I’ll continue with season 2 and 3. That would mean 22 total episodes, one for each of the 22 major arcana tarot cards.

Summary of Virtual Arcana:

In a faraway future, Kelsey Zellar is starting her senior year at yet another school thanks to her twin sister’s troublesome obsession with outlawed virtual reality games.

Every school they’ve ever attended is pretty much the same: lunchroom drama, rich kids binging on enhancement candies, and classmates rallying for or against the government’s strict control over everything from entertainment privileges to caffeine consumption.

Unlike her sister, Kelsey follows the rules and keeps her nose out of trouble and politics while sniffing out her next flavored latte and favorite novel. But when Kelsey meets a charming book connoisseur, and accepts his offering of a tarot card, she takes the first step toward two new addictions: the guy of her dreams, and his illegal dealing of virtual escapes into her beloved storybooks.

Kelsey straddles the worlds of fiction and reality, but is she a fool for believing in her own happy ending?

I realize some of my readers don’t/won’t care for episodic storytelling, so of course there will be the option to wait until the first season is complete and read all the episodes straight through as one full-length novel. But I wanted to offer my new series as a serial for those readers who dislike waiting so long to read more.

To celebrate, I'm giving away EIGHT ebooks of the first episode: The Fool.
Open internationally.
Enter using the Rafflecopter below.



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