Today is the big launch of the INSIDE OUT website and the world premier of the book trailer!  Normally I don’t get super excited for book trailers (cover art, yes) but this one is an exception.  They have perfectly captured the feel of INSIDE OUT by putting the viewer in the position of Trella.  Watching it made me feel like I was in the book.  Anyway, I was impressed.  Go check it out on the book’s site and let me know what you think.  And If you missed my review of Maria V. Snyder’s INSIDE OUT, you can read it HERE (I gave it 4/5 bats).

Maria V. Snyder’s awesome new Harlequin TEEN title INSIDE OUT will be published on April 1st, but you can get a sneak peek today!

• Want to read the first 3 chapters of INSIDE OUT?
• Want to take an INSIDE OUT personality quiz to find out how to become a ‘productive member’ of ‘Inside’ and find the perfect job? Sadly I’m apparently suited to be a LAUNDRY SCRUB

Working with others is something you enjoy, and you don't mind getting a little dirt under your fingernails. Combine these traits with getting satisfaction from working with your hands and you would do well working as a Laundry Scrub.

• Want to watch the very cool book trailer for INSIDE OUT(trust me, you do.  This is one of my favorite trailers right up there with Shiver and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)?
• Plus more!

Then visit the INSIDE OUT website HERE!

I’m very happy to have author Laura Bickle here today. Laura’s debut novel Embers (available on March 30, 2010) follows a ghost hunter and her familiar, Sparky (a jealous fire salamander with an addiction to electricity).   My curiosity was peeked, so I asked Laura to give us the scoop on all things Sparky.

 

Laura Bickle has worked in the unholy trinity of politics, criminology, and technology for several years. She and her chief muse live in the Midwest, owned by four mostly-reformed feral cats. Her short fiction has appeared here and there. Embers, her debut novel, is first in an exciting new urban fantasy series that continues with her forthcoming second novel, Sparks. Laura also writes as Alayna Williams. Alayna's "debut" will be Dark Oracle, Pocket Juno's June 2010 release. 

 

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Familiar Spirits
By
Laura Bickle

No one ever successfully controls a familiar.

Historically, familiars were said to be magical helpers of witches. They had the ability to shift shape, often appearing as cats, bats, or other creatures in their service to the witch. It was assumed by inquisitors that familiars, as a type of imp or evil spirit, served the witch willingly.

At other times, they were summoned by a magician, then trapped in a stone or piece of jewelry. The familiar spirit was trapped, coerced into service, like genies in bottles.

In the world of EMBERS, Anya has a familiar, Sparky. He’s a five-foot long speckled hellbender with eyes like marbles--a fire salamander elemental, a creature that’s the embodiment of fire. The German magician, Paracelsus, called fire spirits “salamanders” in the sixteenth century.  Salamanders were long associated with fire, despite their amphibious nature, because they crawled out of forest logs cast on fires. The salamander was assumed to dwell in fire, and embodied the impetuosity, power, and destructive changeability of the flickering flame.

Anya’s had Sparky since she was a child. He’s tied to a necklace her mother gave her, which suggests that, like the familiars trapped in jewelry, he was coerced into service at some point in the past. But Sparky seems to serve Anya willingly, protecting her from malicious spirits (not to mention jealously guarding her against any potential lovers).

Life with a salamander isn’t easy. Sparky is only able to be seen by Anya and ghosts. When he’s not chasing ghosts, he’s busily getting into trouble. Aside from Anya and the ghosts, he’s only able to affect electrical fields. And electricity is delicious. He’s blown up every microwave that Anya’s ever owned. He chews cell phones and drains their batteries. He likes to lick electrical outlets, with disastrous results. In EMBERS, Anya takes him to a hospital, and he manages to wreak havoc with vital sign monitors.

But Sparky has his lovable moments. His favorite toy is a Gloworm. When he pats it, its cherubic little face lights up, much to his delight. Late at night, he curls up with his toy at the foot of Anya’s bed like any other pet, purring and chortling happily in the amber light of the Gloworm tucked between his paws.

At times like these, Anya rubs his speckled belly and imagines that he’s under control.

And Sparky opens one eye and snorts.

He knows better.  

• Visit Laura’s website HERE
• Visit Laura’s blog HERE

Thanks so much Laura!  Come back anytime.

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 Embers (The Lantern, book 1) by Laura Bickle

Truth burns.Unemployment, despair, anger—visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya—who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern—suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya—with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team—can stop it.Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she’s ever faced.

Want more from Laura Bickle?  Check out her upcoming book written as ‘Alayna Williams,’ Dark Oracle, due out June 2010

Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams

TARA SHERIDAN HAS A GIFT . . . AND IT ALMOST KILLED HER.

As a criminal profiler, Tara used science and her intuitive skill at Tarot card divination to track down the dangerous and depraved, including the serial killer who left her scarred from head to toe. Since that savage attack, Tara has been a recluse. But now an ancient secret society known as Delphi’s Daughters has asked for her help in locating missing scientist Lowell Magnusson. And Tara, armed with her Tarot deck, her .38, and a stack of misgivings, agrees to try.

Tara immediately senses there is far more at stake than one man’s life. At his government lab in the New Mexico desert, Magnusson had developed groundbreaking technology with terrifying potential. Working alongside the brusque but charismatic agent Harry Li, Tara discovers that Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, has knowledge that makes her a target too. The more Tara sees into the future, the more there is to fear. She knows she has to protect Cassie. But there may be no way to protect herself—from the enemies circling around her, or from the long-buried powers.

Interested in guest blogging on All Things Urban Fantasy?  CONTACT ME

Jeaniene Frost just revealed the cover for her next book, Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World, Book 2), releasing July 27th, 2010. I think I like this one even better than First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, Book 1).

 

 

Since everyone always asks, no, these models aren’t exactly how I picture Mencheres and Kira. In my head the best representation I could give would be Oded Fehr for Mencheres (but with longer hair than in that photo) and Milla Jovovich for Kira. But oddly enough, those two weren’t available to pose for the cover, lol. So I think my art director did a great job with finding replacements . –Jeaniene Frost

Book Description:

An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness…and now one woman has stumbled into the shadows.

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she’s only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master Vampire who thought he’d seen it all. Then Kira appears—this fearless, beautiful…human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life, yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose between the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.

Skyler White: In Dreams Begin by Skyler White (December 2010)

Craig White is as amazing as always.  Not quite as stunning as and Falling, Fly…but still another beauty.-ATUF

“Close your eyes tightly—tightly—and keep them closed . . .”

From a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power, but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist instead. Now, for the man or demon she loves, each woman must span a bridge through Hell and across history . . . or destroy it.

“Every passionate man is linked with another age, historical or imaginary,
where alone he finds images that rouse his energy.” W. B. Yeats

Anchored in fact on both sides of history, Laura and Ida, modern rationalist and fin de siècle occultist, are linked from the moment Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne. When Laura falls—from an ocean and a hundred years away—passionately, Victorianly in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats, their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats’s poetry until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces in between.

With her Irish past threatening her orderly present and the man she loves in it, Laura and Yeats—the practical materialist and the poet magus—must find a way to make love last over time, in changing bodies, through modern damnation, and into the mythic past to link their pilgrim souls . . . or lose them forever.

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Dark Faerie Tales: Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (June 1, 2010)

A new YA series from Sherrilyn, or I guess maybe Middle Grade since Nick is only 14.  Still very cool looking.  -ATUF

At 14, Nick Gautier is an average kid who runs with the wrong crowd. But on the night he decides to go straight and refuses to mug an innocent tourist, his crew turns on him and just as he thinks his life is over… a new one begins.

Kyrian of Thrace isn’t just a vampire slayer, he’s a Dark-Hunter and he introduces Nick to a world that he never imagined.

With new enemies who make his old ones look like wimps, Nick must either measure up or get sized for a body bag. It’s kill or be killed and this kid who was born on the wrong side finds a strength inside him that he never knew existed.

Now if he can only find someone to help battle the demons that don’t reside inside him.

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Reading The Best of The Best: Misguided Angel (Blue Bloods, #5) by Melissa de la Cruz (October 5, 2010)

I still haven’t started this series.  I have the first one in my TBR.  To be honest all the covers in this series look the same to me. -ATUF

After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence--with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the seven gates that guard earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silverbloods.

As the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler closer to a terrifying crossroads--and a choice that will determine the destiny of all vampires.

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Dark Faerie Tales: Blood Law by Jeannie Holmes (June 22, 2010)

This is the new cover (right).  The previous cover was—well, see for yourself (left).  The word that comes to mind is cheesy.  This new one is gorgeous. I love the perspective.  I wouldn’t have given the old one a second look, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be buying this new one.-ATUF

 To stop a vampire killer, she’ll have to slay her own demons first.

A provocative and savvy vampire, Alexandra Sabian moves to the sleepy hamlet of Jefferson, Mississippi—population 6,000, nearly one-half vampires—to escape the demons lurking in her past. As an Enforcer for the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation (FBPI), Alex must maintain the uneasy peace between her kind and humans, including Jefferson’s bigoted sheriff, who’d be happy to see all vampires banished from town. Then really dead vamps start turning up—beheaded, crucified, and defanged—killed in the same gruesome manner that Alex’s father was murdered decades ago. For Alex, the professional has become way too personal.

Things get even more complicated when the FBPI sends in some unnervingly sexy backup: Alex’s one-time mentor, lover, and fiancé, Varik Baudelaire. Still stinging from the betrayal that ended their short-lived engagement, Alex is determined not to give in to the temptation that soon threatens to short-circuit her investigation. Like it or not, though, as the body count grows, and the public panic level rises, Varik may be her only hope to stop a relentless killer who’s got his own score to settle, and his own bloody past to put right.

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Erica Hayes: Poison Kissed by Erica Hayes (September 28, 2010)

Oh, very cool.  Love the title, love the knife. -ATUF

Beyond the veil of magic, a fairy otherworld pulses with glamour and dark beauty... It's a place where passions run deep and dark -- and death is just one kiss away...
Mina is a banshee whose greatest power lies in her siren song. She's beholden to her boss Joey, a snake-shifter who once saved her life and now employs her as a gang enforcer. She refuses to upset the fragile balance between them by admitting that she longs for him, that his embrace is the only thing she craves more than revenge for her mother's death...
When Mina learns that Joey may have been involved in her mother's murder, fury threatens to spill out of her, note by vicious note. She and Joey have always trusted each other to stay alive, but now she's not sure what to believe. The evidence stacked against him -- or the one man who haunts her dreams and burns in her blood...

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Delightful Reviews: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa (August 2010)

 This is the first I’ve seen of this cover, but it looks real (NetGalley has this cover up).  Sorry for the poor pic quality.  Its a tiny pic.  Very pretty.  Can’t wait to see a big Hi-Res version. -ATUF

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron Fey, iron-bound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her. Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's alone in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Thanks to all of you how entered this giveaway, and a big thank you to Vicki Lewis Thompson for offering signed copies of Blond with a Wand & Chick with a Charm. Did you miss Vicki’s Guest Blog about her witchy roots? You can read it HERE.

The winners are (chosen by BuzzMyBlog.com Contest Winner Picker):

a signed copy of Blond with a Wand goes to…

 Bookie

Random Entry Selected:	34
Odds of Winning:	2 in 63
Entry Data:	2, Bookie

and a signed copy of Chick with a Charm goes to… 

 donnas

Random Entry Selected:	30
Odds of Winning:	4 in 63
Entry Data:	4, donnas

Congratulations! I’ll be emailing each of you soon. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be drawn.

Also please let me know what you guys think of the new comment system. It’s a little different, but I think once you try it, you’ll like it.  But if you hate it, let me know that too.