I always keep a running list of urban fantasy giveaways on my left sidebar (updated daily), but here is my weekly Win on Wednesday post to help you find all the current contests and giveaways to enter.  All the giveaways are listed in order of the End Date. NEW indicates that the giveaway was added this week.

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1. NEW Just Your Typical Book Blog: 4 ARCs from Egmont + Swag! Ends May ?
2. NEW Michelle’s Book Blog: a surprise box of books. Ends May 5th
3. The Undercover Book Lover: The Clearing, The Reason, and Swoon at Your Own Risk. Ends May 5th
4. Luxury Reading: 5 copies of Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 5th
5. Rayment's Readings, Rants and Ramblings: 3 winners each pick two books. Ends May 5th
6. The Compulsive Reader: Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 5th
7. NEW Smexy Books: HUNTED BY THE OTHERS by Jess Haines. Ends May 6th
8. Parajunkee's Views: Master of None by Sonya Bateman. Ends May 6th
9. The Book Whisperer: ARC Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn, ARC The Clearing by Heather Davis, The Dresskeeper by Mary Naylus, ARC Linger by Maggie Stiefvater. Ends May 6th
10. Fantastic Book Review: WHISPER (ARC) by Phoebe Kitanidis. Ends May 6th
11. NEW That's QUEEN Bitch To You: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Ends May 6th
12. NEW Deadline Dames: The Sweet Scent of Blood. Ends May 7th
13. NEW My Overstuffed Bookshelf: a great gift basket to celebrate Mothers! Ends May 8th
14. NEW Steph Su Reads: 3 winners (1 grand prize, 2 runners-up) ARCs: The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen, She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott, Stolen by Lucy Christopher, Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus, Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready. Signed books: Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder, The Heart Is Not a Size by Beth Kephart. Ends May 7th
15. NEW Deadline Dames: All 4 Allie Beckstrom books by Devon Monk. Ends May 7th
16. NEW Anna’s Book Blog: A Breath of Magic by Tracy Madison. Ends May 7th
17. NEW Karen’s Book Nook: Fat Vampire by Adam Rex. Ends May 7th
18. Fire and Ice: Our prize pack includes... This Lullabye- Sara Dessen, Speak-Laurie Halse Anderson, Prom Nights From Hell- Cabot, Harrison Jaffe, Meyer and Myracle, 2 Rustic Goth handmade Etsy shop Laminated bookmarks, One signed Eternal Conflict Twilight Inspired Music CD, One Fire and Ice Button, One Princess Charm Necklace. Ends May 7th
19. Ellz Readz: one finished copy of Hearts At Stake and one ARC of Blood Feud. Ends May 7th
20. Sideways Gravity: Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. Ends May 7th
21. Books By Their Cover: 5 copies of Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 7th
22. Ramblings Of A Teenage Bookworm: 5 copies of Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 7th
23. LJ Blodyrev: a hardcover copy of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Ends May 7th
24. Mrs Magoo Reads: win ALL seven paperback Harry Potter books. Ends May 8th
25. Wicked Little Pixie: 4 copies of Lover Mine by JR Ward. Ends May 8th
26. Book Love Affair: 2 winners pick a book. Ends May 8th
27. NEW Amberkatze's Book Blog: The Devil's Playground By Jenna Black, Unlean Spirits By H.L.N. Hanover, Born Of Ice By Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Mage In Black By Jaye Wells, or  Silver Borne By Patricia Briggs. Ends May 9th
28. Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories:  X3 Winners X3 different Prizes X3 Books to choose from Winner #1 X3 Cross-Stitched by Jackie Bookmarks to choose from Winner #2 Set of Author Swag Bookmarks for Winner #3. Ends May 9th
29. NEW Bitten by Paranormal Romance: signed copy of The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter. Ends May 9th
30. NEW Amberkatze’s Book Blog: Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready. Ends May 9th
31. NEW Over the Edge Book Reviews: Sonya Bateman’s "MASTER OF NONE". Ends May 9th
32. NEW SciFiGuy: TWO copies of Touching Darkness by Jamie Rush. Ends May 10th
33. NEW Blog with Bite: 'THE SAND DRAGON' by Michael F. Stewart. Ends May 10th
34. NEW All-Consuming Books: Embers by Laura Bickle. Ends May 10th
35. NEW Pop Culture Junkie: ARCs of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer and The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Mille. Ends May 10th
36. NEW Love to Read For Fun: Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh & Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. Ends May 10th
37. NEW Book Addict: a signed copy of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Ends May 10th
38. Bookin With Bingo: 3 copies of ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER AUDIO BOOK BY SETH GRAHAME-SMITH. Ends May 10th
39. NEW The Book Butterfly: The winner of this contest will get their choice of The Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong Book 1 (The Summoning), Book 2 (The Awakening) OR Book 3 (The Reckoning). Ends May 10th
40. Mrs Magoo Reads: a bottle of nail polish inspired by The Dark Divine. Ends May 10th
41. SciFiGuy: FIVE copies of Lover Mine by J.R. Ward *CA ONLY* Ends May 10th
42. Lovin' & Livin' Life in the 808: Steamed, Mind Games, Demonfire, Wings, The Iron King & The Last Song. 6 Winners total. Ends May 10th
43. Book Crazy: 5 copies of Seers of Light...3 copies are signed. Ends May 10th
44. All Things Urban Fantasy: Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 11th
45. The Book Scout: 5 copies of Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 11th
46. Park-Avenue Princess: one signed copy of D.J. MacHale's Morpheus Road: The Light. Ends May 11th
47. NEW The Neverending Shelf: 5 copies of Morpheus Road: The Light. Ends May 12th
48. NEW Angieville: One ARC of LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater. Ends May 12th
49. NEW The Neverending Shelf: 5 lucky winners will each get a finished copy of Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready. Ends May 12th
50. NEW Alvor: a $20 electronic Barnes & Noble gift card or a signed copy of Alvor. Ends May 12th
51. Pirate Penguin's Reads: a three-shelved glass bookcase. Ends May 12th  
52. NEW Fantastic Book Review: 5 copies of SHADE (HC) by Jeri Smith-Ready. Ends May 13th
53. NEW The Story Siren: five copies of The Light: Morpheus Road by D.J. MacHale. Ends May 13th
54. Cleverly Inked: 50  Wonderful Authors, 53 books and to much swag to count!! Ends May 13th
55. NEW Imperial Beach Teen Blog: Arson by Estevan Vega. Ends May 15th
56. NEW Alpha Reader: Gini Koch’s 'Touched by an Alien.' Ends May 15th
57. NEW Darkeva's Blog: "Tales of the Otherworld" by Kelley Armstrong. Ends May 15th
58. NEW The Hidden Haven: Ice By Sarah Beth Durst Ends May 15th
59. NEW All Things Urban Fantasy: One signed copy of HUNTED BY THE OTHERS by Jess Haines. Ends May 15th
60. Alyxandra Harvey: The prize basket includes: Drake Chronicles tote bag, buttons, an I *heart* Nicholas Drake keychain, a My Love Lies Bleeding keychain, a Hearts a Stake mousepad, mini poster, Blood feud mug, postcards, bookmarks and a red-crystal bead Victorian necklace which Aunt Hyacinth would have worn. Ends May 15th
61. Rachel Caine: One winner receives a custom, hand-made, SUPERCOOL package of the Morganville audiobooks, PLUS an extra CD of new, unreleased content. Five winners receive signed copies of KISS OF DEATH, *plus* Amelie bracelets and Eve necklaces from Cadsawan Jewelers! One winner receives a signed copy of KISS OF DEATH, *plus* a signed advance copy of the next Morganville Vampires novel, GHOST TOWN. Five winners receive signed copies of KISS OF DEATH, *plus* cool plastic Morganville Resident cards. Ends May 15th 
62. Imperial Beach Teen Blog: A SIGNED copy of Jekel Loves Hyde from Beth. A copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a gift from Tristen so says the bookplate inside the book!) And a cozy sweatshirt. Ends May 15th
63. Extreme Reader Book Reviews: Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr. Ends May 15th
64. Obsessed:There are TWENTY-ONE books up for grabs. Enter by May 15th
65. NEW Chloe Neill: TWICE BITTEN ARC. Ends May 15th
66. NEW Patricia's Vampire Notes: Ardeur 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series. Ends May 16th
67. NEW Love Vampires: Bad Moon Rising and Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Ends May 16th
68. NEW The Book Pixie: win a box of books along with some really great swag. Ends May 16th
69. vvb32 Reads: Little Women And Werewolves by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand. Ends May 16th
70. vvb32 Reads: Wolfbreed by S.A. Swann. Ends May 16th
71. vvb32 Reads: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Ends May 16th
72. vvb32 Reads: Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann. Ends May 16th
73. vvb32 Reads: Howling at the Moon Tales of an Urban Werewolf by Karen MacInerney. Ends May 16th
74. vvb32 Reads: Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel by Ronda Thompson. Ends May 16th
75. vvb32 Reads: your choice of werewolf books. Ends May 16th
76. vvb32 Reads: Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar. Ends May 16th
77. vvb32 Reads: Dark Moon by Lori Handeland. Ends May 16th
78. vvb32 Reads: Never Cry Werewolf by L. A. Banks. Ends May 16th
79. The Book Pixie:signed paperback copy of Lisa Scroeder's Far From You and a signed Chasing Brooklyn bookmark. Ends May 16th
80. The Book Pixie: 1 winner will receive the following HarperTEEN Books: ~Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver ~The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart ~The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong ~Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn. Ends May 16th
81. NEW Ellz Readz: The winner can choose either Chick With A Charm or Blonde With A Wand! Ends May 17th
82. The Undercover Booklover:TWO Copies of Siren by Tricia Rayburn. Ends May 18th
83. SciFiChick: Feed edited by Mira Grant. Ends May 21st
84. NEW Literary Escapism: 12 winners, each getting two books of their choice. Ends May 22nd
85. NEW Rachel Vincent: 3 people will each receive a signed copy of My Soul To Keep and a Soul Screamers tee-shirt. Ends May 24th
86. Dawn Hullender's Southern Musings: Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (books 1 – 13), Lynsay Sands’ A Quick Bite, Bookmarks, postcards and other assorted goodies from Jennifer Hudson Taylor (whose debut novel Highland Blessings will be out in May 2010), Some really nifty Lori Handeland bookmarks. Ends May 25th
87. NEW The Bookologist: 5 lucky winners will get a finished copy of Gone by Lisa McMann. Ends May 27th
88. The Bibliophilic Book Blog: Lots of books and swag. Ends May 30th
89. NEW blkosiner: The named by Marianne Curley. Ends May 30th
90. NEW Anna’s Book Blog: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris plus another book. Ends May 30th
91. NEW Midnight Moon Cafe: author bookmarks and more packet, and the paperback, The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter! Ends May 31st
92. NEW Cynsations: Morpheus Road: The Light by by D. J. MacHale. Ends May 31st
93. NEW Kristie Cook:  Gift baskets of urban fantasy books, including a signed copy of Kristie Cook's PROMISE releasing in July, and writer and reader swag. 3+ winners. Ends May 31st or 100 followers.
94. NEW Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chick: A giveaway a day. Ends May 31st
95. NEW Queen of Happy Ending: 4 wonderful new books. Ends May 31st
96. The Book Resort: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Ends May 31st
97. Annette McCleave: One signed copy of Bound by Darkness, One set of Drawn into Darkness and Bound by Darkness, One $50 gift certificate to B&N, Borders, or Chapters. Ends May 31st
98. Melissa Marr: 40 books, 20 winners will get 2 books each. They range from middle-grade to adult, romance to SFF to paranormal romance, signed and unsigned, ARCs and finished copies.  Ends June 1st
99. Goodreads: several UF book giveaways to win.  Ends June 1st
100. J.K. Beck's Shadow Keepers: an ARC of WHEN BLOOD CALLS by J.K. Beck aka Julie Kenner, and a free KINDLE, onto which the ARC will be loaded. Enter by Summer 2010
101. NEW I Heart Monster: Arson by Estevan Vega. Ends June 15th
102. The Book Resort: Win A Copy of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephanie Meyer. June 30th
103. A Book-lovers Review: Guess Who? giveaway with 3 prize packs and weekly contests. Ends October 27th
104. Bitten by Books:  new contests almost everyday.

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Please use this form to add your paranormal contest/giveaway to my sidebar & future Win on Wednesday posts.

 

It’s here!  Today is the official release date for Jess Haines debut urban fantasy HUNTED BY THE OTHERS.  I had a blast reading this book (a 5 bat blast) and want to make sure you all do too.  A big thanks to Jess for coming back (see her previous guest blog HERE) for an interview today.  Plus Jess is offering a giveaway too. See below for details.

Jess Haines is a displaced New Yorker with a penchant for the silly, the obscure, and the fantastical. Los Angeles is home for the time being, since it consistently meets her daily quota of strange. She’s currently working on the H&W Investigations urban fantasy series. Find out more about Shiarra Waynest, drop her a line, or join her mailing list at www.jesshaines.com!

 

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Interview

ATUF: Can you tell us a little about your debut urban fantasy, HUNTED BY THE OTHERS?

JH: Sure thing! It’s about a private investigator, Shiarra Waynest, who has run into financial trouble with her business. She breaks down and accepts a job she normally wouldn’t touch – a mage coven hires her to find an artifact in the hands of New York’s hottest – err, most powerful vampire.

Seeing as she’s human, Shiarra knows she can’t compete with the Others (supernaturals). All she wants to do is find the artifact, collect her fee, and call it a day. However, when the magi who come in contact with it start showing up dead and the vampire Alec Royce finds out she’s been attempting to manipulate him, things go downhill pretty fast. Before she knows it, her friends and family are suddenly endangered by her choices, and she’s running out of time to figure out where this thing is hidden. Meanwhile, a bunch of crazy supernatural hunters called White Hats are inviting her to join them or die. Oh, and her werewolf ex-boyfriend may or may not be trying to get back in her pants and/or use her to get his own hands on the artifact.

Yeah, she’s not having a good day.

ATUF: How and why did you decide to write an urban fantasy?

JH: You know, it’s funny, but the thing which drove me to write this story was the completion of a high fantasy novel I’d been working on since 2001. I slaved over that baby. The charts, the sketches, the diagrams! I had it all planned out. It would be epic, thundering across the annals of high fantasy history like the next Robert Jordan. It was to be my dream, my crowning achievement, my magnum opus…!

It also sucked. A lot. Like, really sucked.

So I tossed it aside and decided that I needed a palate cleanser. Something lighter, something funnier, something that didn’t smack of oh-so-serious high falutin fantasy. Rather than think on it and plot the thing out start to finish, I sat down and just started banging out chapters. I wasn’t sure where it was going at first, but I kept taking the pieces of it in to work with me and showing them to my first and number one fan, Binah. Binah kept pushing me to write more, so I did. Before I knew it, I had a completed draft – and HUNTED BY THE OTHERS was born.

ATUF: In HUNTED BY THE OTHERS, Vampires, Weres, and Mages etc. came out of the proverbial closet in the aftermath of 9/11.  How did you decide on this type of revelation?

JH: When I reached the point of deciding how it was these supernatural critters announced themselves to the world, there only seemed one logical answer. With all the technological advances we’ve had over the last few decades, how long could critters like vampires or werewolves really hide among us? Why not jump on an opportunity to be seen as something more than monsters out of fairytales instead of being forcibly ousted by technology at an inopportune moment?

Part of how I figured it is that people don’t often stop to consider who (or what) might be working alongside them. The Intern had an interesting blog post on this very thing– err, okay, not exactly on this very thing, but the last paragraph is really what I was getting at. Granted, HUNTED BY THE OTHERS approaches this on a far grander scale, but the same concept applies. They decided it was their time to be noticed.

Hey, it made sense at the time.

As for the other side of that coin – why the fall of the Twin Towers, specifically – this may sound a bit silly and perhaps even insouciant, but I consider it my tribute to what happened that day. I was a volunteer on site at Ground Zero as soon as I could get there. The things that I saw and did at the time have always stuck with me. It’s not meant to make light of those events in any way, just seemed appropriate to pay my own (admittedly weird) brand of homage to them.

ATUF: Shiarra Waynest is your main character, a P.I. who unwillingly gets caught up in a power struggle between the “Others.” I loved that she was a normal person thrust into extraordinary circumstances.  She exhibited real fear in the face of danger, but she never let that fear paralyze her. Can you tell us what makes her tick?  (And how is her name pronounced?  I’ve been reading it like ‘tiara’).

JH: Good question! (Yeah, I know, I had to go pick the funky name, didn’t I? If you want me to get all phonetic on you, “Shiarra = Shee--ahr--uh / Shia = Shee-ah” seems about right.) She’s a normal person. She likes to kick back and chill with her friends, go out for coffee, and keep away from anything Other. Sadly, letting the Others in to your life is a hell of a lot easier than getting them to go away.

Shiarra’s not so much driven to succeed as she is to survive, though she doesn’t realize that right away. Doing something “wild and different” (having her own P.I. business) was her way of showing her family she could be just as strong and just as capable as her brothers, the fireman and successful lawyer. She doesn’t want to look like a failure to them, which means she’ll do almost anything to keep H&W Investigations’ doors open.

When she gets caught up in The Circle’s machinations to steal the Dominari Focus from Alec Royce, she learns just how much she values her life over her business. She’s forced to make some tough choices and confront some ugly things about herself in the process of staying alive. All while juggling her ailing finances, attending her younger brother’s birthday bash (without leading the bad guys to her parents’ doorstep), and getting some truly spectacular gear to prove to the Others that she’s able and willing to defend herself.

..I did mention the talking belt with the stakes, right?

ATUF: There is an interesting legal arrangement in the book that allows humans to contractually sign their lives away to “Others.” These forms have to be signed prior to any kind of intimate (pleasant or otherwise) contact between humans and “Others.” Are there any circumstances under which you could be persuaded to sign such a form?

JH: Feed me enough chocolate and coffee, and I’ll do anything.

In all seriousness, I think it would strongly depend on who was doing the persuading. One thing to bear in mind about those contracts is that you’re opening yourself up to being killed by a monster who will suffer no consequences for their actions other than a guilty conscience (hah!). It’d take an awful, awful lot of persuasion to get me to put something like that aside.

ATUF: There are currently three titles in the H&W Investigations series listed on your website.  Do you have plans to continue this series beyond those three books?

JH: I would love to carry out Shiarra’s story into a much longer series! At this point, though, I think whether we go beyond the current contracted trilogy is up to my publisher, Kensington. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that the books sell well enough that you’ll be able to see a lot more of Shiarra and her friends in the future.

ATUF: I love the cover of HUNTED BY THE OTHERS.  Every detail matches your description in the book.  Did you work with the artist to ensure such a faithful rendering?

JH: Indirectly, yes. My descriptions of the character are what the artist worked off of, but I didn’t actually see the cover art or how it was coming along until after it was done. I’m very pleased with it! They did an incredible job capturing the badassery of Shia, the guns, and (my favorite!) the wise-cracking belt.

ATUF: On your website, you mention a novella (SPARK OF TEMPTATION) that will be part of an upcoming anthology Nocturnal scheduled for publication on September 7, 2010.  Do you have anymore details that you can share with us?  Is it a prequel?

JH: Sure! SPARK OF TEMPTATION focuses on two of the side characters from HUNTED BY THE OTHERS: Sara Halloway (Shiarra’s business partner and best friend) and Arnold Moore (a mage who helped deal with the Big Bad from HBTO).

*Slight spoilers from HUNTED BY THE OTHERS below*

It takes place between HBTO and TAKEN BY THE OTHERS, while Shiarra is recuperating in the hospital. The vampire from the first book, Alec Royce, contacts Sara and blackmails her into helping him find out who has been nosing around his businesses. As she investigates, John – another vampire, Royce’s second-in-command – becomes interested in her and attempts to seduce her. Meanwhile, Sara has a fight with her current boyfriend, NYPD Officer Lerian, leaving her stung and alone.

Arnold does what he can to help her. As much as she likes him, Sara’s leery about accepting help from Others – especially magic users. During the investigation, she finds her initial spark of interest in him blossom into something more.

While working together, Arnold and Sara find out that a group of vampire hunters called the Anti-Others Alliance are out to make Royce’s life miserable. The AOA finds out Sara is involved with Royce, and take action to get rid of her. Between Royce’s threats, John’s advances, and AOA members out to get her, Sara’s in for some serious trouble – and isn’t sure she’ll come out of the mess alive.

ATUF: Who are some of your favorite authors in this genre?  Are there any titles past/present/future that you really loved?

JH: This is the part of the interview where you can’t shut me up. I LOVE the staples of this genre – Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), Kim Harrison (The Hollows), Charlaine Harris (I’m a late-comer to Ms. Harris’ work, but I adored the first Sookie Stackhouse book), Laurell K. Hamilton (the Anita Blake series, pre-porn/ardeur) – though I have surprisingly few urban fantasy titles on my bookshelf.

Most of what I read growing up were in the high fantasy genre, like Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, etc, or science fiction, like Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, and Orson Scott Card. Let us not forget the horror staples either, like Stephen King and Peter Straub. Currently, I’ve been catching up on the books written by my fellow authors over at the Absolute Write forum, and I’ll be doing reviews and interviews on my blog here and there.

Though this is a far from complete list, some of my favorite books are:

THE ELVENBANE (Norton/Lackey)

BLACK SUN RISING (Friedman)

UNDER THE FANG (an anthology of vampire short stories, not for the faint of heart/weak of stomach)

TURNCOAT (Butcher)

DEAD WITCH WALKING (Harrison)

1984 (Orwell)

And, of course, any Calvin & Hobbes titles.

ATUF: Do you have a dream cast in mind if HUNTED BY THE OTHERS were made into a movie?

JH: Do I! *g* Though I can’t say for sure it will happen, I do know that there were some producers looking at my work a while back. Binah and I went nuts making a dream cast list the day I heard about it. Of course, the producers looking at it – even optioning it – is far from having a movie deal in the works but, hey, a girl can dream, right?

So, without further ado, this is who I would love (lovelovelove) to see in the most memorable roles of HBTO: The Movie!:

Shiarra Waynest Dina Meyer, Alicia Witt, or Evan Rachel Wood

Sara Halloway Katee Sackhoff

Alec Royce Paul Rudd or Robert Downey, Jr.

Chaz Chad Michael Murray

Arnold Charlie Korsmo or Alan Tudyk

Jack the White Hat Tyson Ritter, James Marsters, or Willem Dafoe

Tiny the White Hat Michael Clarke Duncan

Veronica Wright Grace Park (alt: Parker Posey or Lena Headey)

Anastasia Alderov Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Allison Darling: Nikki Reed

David Borowsky Shia Lebeouf

Rohrik Donovan Gerard Butler or Viggo Mortensen

Cab Driver Sascha Baron Cohen or Daniel Baldwin

Bruno the Bouncer: Brock Lesnar

ATUF: It’s still early in the year, but I’m going to go out on a ledge and say that HUNTED BY THE OTHERS is probably going to be one of my favorite urban fantasy titles of 2010. Taken By The Others (H&W Investigations, book 2) doesn’t have a release date yet, but is it too much to hope for sometime in 2010?

JH: Thank you so much! I’m not 100% certain myself, but I think Kensington was looking at a December 2010/January 2011 release date for TAKEN BY THE OTHERS (also known as: “In Which Shiarra Learns There Are Consequences to Her Actions” *g*). There’s no official copy on TBTO available yet, but the unofficial copy – the overview from my synopsis/outline – is this:

*Some spoilers from HUNTED BY THE OTHERS below*

OVERVIEW: Several months after HUNTED BY THE OTHERS, Shiarra is out of the hospital, back on her feet, and getting into the routine of working again. The story starts with the White Hat from the last book, Jack, come to warn her that she’s in danger and will soon have to choose whose side she’s on: that of Alec Royce, the White Hats, or a stranger named Max Carlyle.

As usual, Shiarra doesn’t want anything to do with the Others – but that doesn’t stop them from involving her in their problems. Vampire Max Carlyle is out for revenge against Shiarra and Royce for (**removed, no spoilers!**). Meanwhile, Shia has to bat off Royce’s advances, somehow keep the White Hats at arms length (while also enlisting their aid), and find out who set up her werewolf boyfriend, Chaz, to walk into a death trap.

Shiarra finds herself confronting every aspect of her fear of vampires for the first time. Being bitten and bound by blood turns out to be the least of her worries. Someone inside Royce’s coterie has decided to side with Max, betraying both Royce and Shia at every opportunity. Once the police get involved, taking Royce into custody for a crime he didn’t commit, Shiarra falls into Max’s hands.

That’s when she finds out what it really means to be afraid of vampires.

ATUF: Thanks so much for stopping by Jess.  Come back anytime!

Giveaway(International)

One signed copy of HUNTED BY THE OTHERS by Jess Haines

They are the Others—the vampires, mages, and werewolves once thought to exist only in our imaginations. Now they’re stepping out of the shadows, and nothing in our world will ever be the same again…

In A Town Like This, Being A P.I. Can Be Murder

Shiarra Waynest’s detective work was dangerous enough when her client base was strictly mortal. But ailing finances have forced her to accept a lucrative case that could save her firm—if it doesn’t kill her first. Shiarra has signed on to work for a high-level mage to recover an ancient artifact owned by one of New York’s most powerful vampires.

As soon as Shiarra meets sexy, mesmerizing vamp Alec Royce, she knows her assignment is even more complicated than she thought. With a clandestine anti-Other group trying to recruit her, and magi being eliminated, Shiarra needs back-up and enlists her ex-boyfriend—a werewolf whose non-furry form is disarmingly appealing—and a nerdy mage with surprising talents. But it may not be enough. In a city where the undead roam, magic rules, and even the Others aren’t always what they seem, Shiarra has just become the secret weapon in a battle between good and evil—whether she likes it or not…

Click HERE to read the first chapter of HUNTED BY THE OTHERS.

GIVEAWAY GUIDLINES

1. Open Internationally (thanks Jess!)
2. Leave a comment for Jess or answer the question: “What would make you sign an Other contract?” (log in with your comment if you want to be contacted if you win).
3. Entries must be received by Midnight MST on May 15th.  The winner will be announced in a post on May 16th.

Please take a second to share this giveaway.  Thanks!

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

Today’s guest blogger is Cara Lockwood, the USA Today bestselling author of I Do (But I Don’t), a romantic comedy about a divorced wedding planner which was made into a Lifetime Original Movie in 2004. Cara has since been drawn over to the paranormal – first with a series for young adults about Bard Academy, a haunted boarding school – and now with her new Dogwood County series about a small Texas town beset by comical demons and some pretty colorful characters fighting evil. The second book in the series, Can’t Teach An Old Demon New Tricks was just released in April, and she’s here today to talk about her favorite character in the new book – a fallen angel named Sam who might just be one of the world’s original bad boys.

by Cara Lockwood

Hi there! I’m so glad to be blogging today, and I’m really excited to tell you about my new series, where the ultimate showdown between good and evil happens in a small east Texas town. In Dogwood, there’s a gun-toting priest, a would-be angel trapped in a French bulldog’s body, a half-demon toddler who likes to set his Goldfish snacks on fire, and a sexy fallen angel who is one of the devil’s best bounty hunters. Dogwood is the home to the world’s largest pecan pie (weighing in at nearly 500 pounds) and also happens to be the ancient battleground of good and evil, where the fate of mankind might hang in the balance.

Other than that, Dogwood is just your average, ordinary east Texas town.

In Can’t Teach An Old Demon New Tricks, the second in the Dogwood series, Rachel Farnsworth is just your regular mom of a rambunctious toddler. When Rachel’s husband (the lazy, good-for-nothing sitting on the couch drinking Bud) disappears without a trace, she soon discovers that the man she thought she knew was actually a demon in disguise. Her toddler, who is impervious to immunization needles, fire and falls, and who also happens to be able to set things on fire with a simple breath, is actually half-demon, she’s going to need a whole lot more help than the babysitter down the street can provide.

Turns out, Rachel’s husband has stirred up a lot of trouble, and he’s got heaven and hell looking for him. In steps Samsapiel, or just Sam to his friends (and enemies), a fallen angel who has spent the last two millennia trying to hold on to his angel powers by being the devil’s bounty hunter. Bringing in wayward demons and monsters hiding out on earth back to hell where they belong is Sam’s job and he’s good at it. He also has his sights set on the missing demon husband of Rachel Farnsworth.

Here’s a little excerpt from Can’t Teach An Old Demon New Tricks.

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Sam double-parked his motorcycle outside Farnsworth’s hardware store and glanced up. He was so close to Kevin Farnsworth now he could smell it. Once he bagged him, Sam could happily claim to have the most top-five captures of any bounty hunter, ever in the history of time. No escaped demon was safe when Sam was around, and that’s how Sam liked it.

He’d spent the better part of a thousand years getting demons on the run and turning them into the devil for an apt reward – his angel powers, fully restored, minus, of course, the wings. If he stopped the bounties, he would lose his power and become human, with all the pitfalls of sickness and age.

Fallen angles didn’t become human overnight, but they did eventually. Most simply skipped to the chase, pledged their souls to Satan, and joined his army, where they usually got a permanent boost in their powers and a promotion to boot. But Sam didn’t have a taste for the devil’s army. He wasn’t about to pledge his allegiance to anyone, least of all Satan. But he wasn’t ready to grow old and die, either, so he’d been walking the fine line between doing the devil’s work and staying a free agent.

Sam told himself that the demons he caught and returned to Satan did less damage within his army or in hell than loose on their own. In the ongoing war between heaven and hell, there were ground rules. A freelance demon played by no rules whatsoever, and that was dangerous. And, half the time, the really nasty demons Satan just destroyed anyway, since he didn’t like anyone who might compete with his power. It was one of the reasons Satan’s army was never really a match for God’s. Satan kept executing all his strongest soldiers.

Besides, Sam did good deeds now and again. Truth was, he did more good fallen than he ever had as a Wrath angel. Back then, when God told him to kill a demon or level an entire town, he would do it without asking why. God said it must be so, and he was a Wrath angel just following orders. He would tell himself what other Wrathers did: that they deserved it. That the demons or the people had it coming. That God knew best, and their deaths were all for the greater good.

***

Sam lost his wings because he refused to kill a mortal woman in Sodom. He simply couldn’t get himself to strike down an unarmed woman, despite the fact that God’s orders were clear. But, after that one selfless act – letting the woman live at the cost of losing his own wings – he spends the rest of his time focusing on himself. When he meets Rachel and her toddler son, he starts looking outside himself for the first time in a long time.

Rachel changes everything he thought he knew about humans. Rachel isn’t weak or cowering, and she seems to have a frustrating immunity to his angel charms. When Rachel corners Sam and tries to figure out what he knows about Kevin, she is determined not to give up until she gets some answers.

***

“I don’t get tired of asking questions, you know. I can keep at this all night,” [Rachel] warned [Sam].

“I can keep at this all century,” Sam said evenly.

Rachel blinked twice fast, and then gave an appreciative laugh. She knew when she’d been had. “You fallen angels don’t play fair.”

“We definitely don’t,” Sam agreed, leaning forward and showing her his even white smile. Between his dazzling grin and his distinctive smell, Rachel was quickly losing her ability to think clearly.

“If you’re not going to tell me about Kevin, then you ought to tell me something else.”

“Like what?” Sam asked, unfolding his arms and leaning forward.

“Something about you. Like what you can do.”

A slight frown creased his forehead. “You don’t really want to know that.”

“Oh, yes, I do,” Rachel said. “I know you can run fast and you’re strong, but how fast? And how strong?”

“Fast enough,” Sam said. “Strong enough.”

“Show me.” Rachel gave Sam an expectant look, and he seemed to waver a second. She pounced on his hesitation. “What? Are you scared you aren’t as strong or fast as I think you are?”

The dare seemed to work. Sam’s blue eyes grew serious.

“Is this” – he started, and then, before he even completed his sentence, he was on the other side of the room, at the top of the altar, leaning against the podium—“fast enough?”

Rachel had only seen the hint of a blur and then he was on the other side of the room. So she hadn’t imagined it at Branson’s. When he’d picked her up, he’d been so fast, he’d flown from one side of the room to the other.

“And what about—“

“Strength?” he finished for her, and suddenly Rachel was suspended six feet in the air, Sam having rushed back across the church in a blink and lifted up the pew she was sitting on, holding it casually with one hand, looking as if the solid oak pew and her added weight caused him no more trouble than lifting a roll of paper towels.

“Okay, I’m convinced,” Rachel said, clutching at the pew to keep it from sliding off. “You can put me down now.”

Sam gently laid the bench back down on the cement floor and sat down beside her. “Scared?” he asked her, as if it were a dare.

“I don’t scare that easily,” she said. The proximity of him suddenly made her nervous. And his spicy sweet smell was even stronger now.

“Well, you should,” Sam said.

***

Of all the supernatural characters, I think fallen angels are the easiest to relate to, because they are so much like we are. They have the same emotions and weaknesses that we do – like jealousy, pride and anger. They are like us, except that when they make a mistake, they lose a piece of who they are – their wings. I’m also very much interested in the story of redemption, and the story of a bad boy making good is very compelling to me because I think we would all like to think we get second chances in life.

Sam was such a fun character to write because he made this selfless gesture in saving a mortal woman, but then spent the rest of his time looking inward, thinking only of himself. Rachel and her son force him to look outside himself again and to realize he can’t really stay neutral in something as important as the war between good and evil. Eventually, everyone has to take sides – even a fallen angel as fiercely independent as Sam.

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Thanks Cara for stopping by.  Come back anytime.

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Can’t Teach An Old Demon New Tricks by Cara Lockwood

Book Description

Get an east Texas girl good and mad,and there’s going to be hell to pay!Rachel Farnsworth doesn’t believe in the paranormal—she can find plenty of evil forces right in Dogwood County, like the Mega-Mart that’s driving her family’s hardware store into the ground. Then there’s her own little hell-raiser—a rowdy toddler who can turn his birthday candles into a blazing inferno with just one breath. But when her marriage goes up in smoke, Rachel discovers her husband, Kevin, isn’t just a deadbeat, he’s also a demon (a sloth demon, no less, which explains why he never helped around the house) with a renegade bounty hunter—a fallen angel named Sam—chasing down a powerful secret Kevin has kept for a millennium or two. Sam’s downfall was a beautiful mortal woman . . . and now, the heavenly attraction zinging between them has down-to-earth Rachel believing in celestial magic. But will it be enough to save her and her son from the dark forces Kevin has unwittingly unleashed on Dogwood County?

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416550976
• ISBN-13: 978-1416550976

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*Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Penguin Group

STORMWALKER by Allyson James will be released on May 4, 2010

Book Description

Half-Navajo Janet Begay comes to Magellan to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the police chief's daughter. But the people of Magellan sense that Janet is not what she seems, and they're right.

Janet possesses extraordinary power which is tied to the storms that waft across the desert. The only person who can control her when she's caught in the storm's evocative power is Mick, a dark-haired, blue-eyed biker Janet can't seem to touch with her powers. He can wield fire and not get burned, and Janet's never sure where he goes when they're not together.

Together they investigate mysterious disappearances, which Janet fears are tied to her mother's people, the mythical gods from below the earth. They are helped along the way by Coyote and Crow, but these shapeshifting gods have their own agendas.

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Book 1 in The Stormwalker Series

Review:
There is a lot to like about Allyson James first book in her new Stormwalker series. The stunning cover art by Tony Mauro is just the beginning. The world building involves a Native American twist on the four elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and a mythological history of earth.  The main character, Janet Begay, is a Stormwalker. When a storm rages, Janet becomes essentially an X-man (minus the creepy white eyes and comic book spandex).

I did have a moment of disorientation in the beginning of STORMWALKER wondering if I'd missed some earlier novella in this series. Thankfully no. Allyson just chose to throw her characters right in the middle of the story and provide the back-story of Janet meeting both Mick and her mother in flashback chapters. So if you feel like you missed something in the first few chapters, don't worry, it's coming.

Normally Janet endures the mother of all magical hangovers the day after riding a storm, unless Mick is there. Mick is Janet's on again/off again lover. With fire abilities that rival her storm powers, Mick can siphon off her storm energy and leave her calm and nearly sexually sated. When caught up in a particularly heady storm, the experience for Janet is almost orgasmic (see the scene in the jail).

Speaking of sex, there is quite a bit in STORMWALKER. A lot of Janet's magical abilities have sexual repercussions. Tantric magic, for example, created by some spectacularly creative sex, can reinforce magical wards. Ultimately, there ended up being more references to crazy wild sex than actual descriptions. Most, not all, of the sex scenes are relatively brief and only moderately graphic.

And I haven't even mentioned Beneath yet. Imagine the planet as an onion with layer upon layer of worlds, each better than the last. Various gods and humans escaped through to this world and sealed below the rest, including Janet’s psychopathic mother. Some of Beneath’s nastier creatures made it into our world including skinwalkers and nightwalkers (aka shifters and vampires). 

As far as the plot goes, I never really bought into Janet's reason for being in Arizona. She explains that she's been hired to find a missing woman, and decides to buy and fix up an old hotel in the process.  The how and why are a bit weak, as is the initial reason for her level of dedication. The clues that she puts together are also pretty random, and I still think that the last leap in logic was totally unbelievable.

But I didn't really like STORMWALKER because of the missing woman mystery. I liked it because of the main characters and the paranormal world that they lived in. Janet is this tough biker chick who never got over her first love. She struggles believably with wanting to just be loved and knowing her own self-respect won't allow her to stay with a man who won't reveal anything about himself. Mick, for all his smoking good looks and fiery nature, doesn't seem to know how to love Janet the way she needs to be loved. Each one is trying so desperately to protect the other that they don't realize that they may lose each other anyway. Their whole relationship is volatile and addictively compelling and I can’t wait to read more about them when Firewalker comes out on November 2nd.

Sexual Content: Several sex scenes of various lengths and graphical intensity.  References to ménage sex.  Attempted rape.

My Rating (out of 5):
Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & pre-order the sequel.

Click HERE to read an excerpt of STORMWALKER

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042523469X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425234693
• Cover Art: Tony Mauro

Disagree with my review?  Contact me your review for this or any other book I’ve reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

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