Favourite Reads of 2011!

It's been an amazing year for books. I've read some of my favourite books ever this year which made narrowing it down very difficult. But after much oohing and ahhing and huffing and hawing, I finally came up with a list (and still want to add to them!) but these are the books that come to mind first after a wonderful year in young adult and adult literature. Not all of these books came out in 2011, some of them I only discovered this year...

Favourite Debuts

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Favourite Dystopians

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Eden by Keary Taylor

Favourite Science Fiction

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Hush Money by Susan Bischoff

Favourite Paranormal Fantasy

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Valiant by Holly Black

Favourite Fantasy

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Favourite Contemporary

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (adult contemporary)

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (adult contemporary)

Favourite Adult Urban Fantasy Series

Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill

Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Riley Jenson Guardian by Keri Arthur

Dark Swan by Richelle Mead

Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs

Favourite Indies

Eden by Keary Taylor

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Destiny Binds by Tammy Blackwell

Hush Money by Susan Bischoff

Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan

Favourite Book Covers

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Smokeless Fire by... me (created by the wondrous phatpuppyart)

FAVOURITE READ OF 2011

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor is my standout favourite read of 2011. I loved this book so much I didn't even agonize over this choice. One of my favourite reads of all time, I absolutely, truly adore every inch of this beautiful, stunning, epic tale.

What's your favourite read of 2011?

Sam x

Happy Boxing Day...

... to all you folks in the UK and Canada! Unlike most I'm avoiding the Boxing Day sales and will venture out to them in the next few days when I'm less likely to be mauled by an over-perfumed boxing day sales shark reaching for the last 'whatever' it will be that I too am inevitably reaching for.

*shudders*

No thank you.

So yes, I'm at home and I'm working today. I've had two weeks off and they've been great if not a little frustrating sometimes. I had a very Merry Christmas though. Mum and I swapped very similar shaped boxes yesterday only to reveal that we had each bought one another the same gift. Best Gift Ever! Harry Potter adult edition paperback boxset.
Great minds think alike ;-)
So that was funny. As was the too big, slightly deformed dressing gown I bought my dad that was surely made by someone who knows a giant with one arm twice as long as the other.
It was a lovely day though and made even lovelier this morning to discover a lot of you spent your Christmas pennies on my books! Best sales EVER yesterday and today is looking just as good, you gorgeous people you! In particular, Smokeless Fire is doing a happy dance... it's enjoying the highest rank I've ever achieved on amazon... so thank you! A very Merry Christmas to me :-p


OK... so I'm off to work (this will include dashing back and forth to the huge tin of Cadbury's Roses I have under the tree... hoping that the distance will keep me from them... It won't). Here's to Santa taking a much needed break; to writing; to putting on twenty pounds in the next week, and to all the people in our lives who'll love us anyway!!!

Happy Holidays all!


Sam x

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Touch of Power (Avry of Kazan #1)
by Maria V. Snyder

amazon - paperback £6.07

Book Description

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life....



My Thoughts
Fantastic Read!

Maria V. Snyder is back with a vengeance! Touch of Power is an action-packed, thrilling, imaginative and romantic adventure to rival Poison Study.



Heroine, Avry, is a healer and the last of her kind. Blamed for creating a plague that destroyed their world, Avry has been in hiding for the last 3 years. Unable to resist healing children, Avry is eventually caught, only to be freed by a man bent on using her to save a Prince he believes can save them all.

Literally from the first page I was sucked in by the adventure and Avry’s strong and compassionate narration. The action never lets up in Touch of Power, there’s constant suspense and intrigue. Similar to Snyder’s Poison Study trilogy, Touch of Power has that brilliant camaraderie between the characters, especially between Avry and a few of the men who have ‘captured’ her to take her to the Prince. Plenty of humor, sadness, frustration and charm are provided by the well-rounded group of characters, all accented by an imaginative plot that swept me off my feet. I think Touch of Power may be Snyder’s longest novel, yet I wolfed it down in less than two days, I was so struck by the worldbuilding, plot and compelling characters ('good' and 'bad').


Cannot wait to read more of this epic fantasy romance! Awesome stuff.


Five Massive Massive Stars!


Sam x

Special Christmas Offer!

For a limited time only!

Smokeless Fire will be available to download for FREE on Kindle for 3 days - from Midnight tonight (Pacific time) to just before Midnight on Christmas Eve. If you haven't checked out book one in my new Fire Spirits series just yet then now is the perfect time to do so!

Download from amazon.com HERE.

amazon.co.uk HERE

amazon.de HERE

amazon.fr HERE

amazon.es HERE

amazon.it HERE

Merry Christmas!

Sam x

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

amazon - Hardback £9.84

Book Description

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.


My Thoughts
Awesome Read!

I’ll get the one semi-negative thing I have to say out of the way. The cover. Although very pretty, it’s too pretty. Shatter Me is not a pretty story. It’s hard. It’s unapologetic. And it’s exceptional. I think a cover more in keeping with other current dystopians such as The Hunger Games and Divergent would have been more fitting. However… tis neither here nor there and does not take away from the fact that Shatter Me is a wonderful, must read.

The beauty of Shatter Me is all in the writing. Tahereh Mafi has magically combined a lyrical and unique style of writing with the fluidity of fast-paced prose. Her use of strikethroughs for the heroine and narrator, Juliette’s, subconscious thoughts is pure genius. It allowed me to get to know her better and like her and admire the strength she doesn’t even know she possesses. As for Mafi’s turn of phrase… wowzer… her writing is stunning - poetry wrapped up in a dystopian superhero novel. There is nothing clichéd about Shatter Me. It’s a mash up of differing ideas that somehow piece together into something beautiful and new.

Juliette’s character development over the course of the novel is powerful stuff. The prose changes slightly as it eases from the quick, short unbroken sentences of someone who has spent the past year living entirely in her own head to more fleshed out, ‘normal’ sentences as she begins to acclimate to being around people again.

Love interest, Adam, is delicious - a little suspect at first, but strong, loving and loyal. The way his character unravels Juliette’s is utterly mesmerizing… the scenes with them together are written in pure word candy. Exquisitely yummy.

Other minor characters are all excellent, every single one well-developed and three dimensional, but it is the strange, twisted, calm, irrational, cruel, gentle, deranged, affectionate and monstrous paradox that is Warner that I found most compelling of all. I love a book with a million shades of grey and Shatter Me is definitely a vast spectrum of the whitest grey to the darkest.

The plot itself was incredibly fast-paced, suspenseful, disturbing, raw and action-packed. A dystopian science-fiction adventure that is just about to take off!

Cannot wait for more of this world and its spellbinding writing.

Five Massive Massive Stars!

Favourite quotes from Shatter Me:

“I always wonder about raindrops.

I always wonder about how they’re always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It’s like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn’t seem to care where the contents fall, doesn’t seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors.

I am a raindrop.

My parents emptied their pockets of me and left me to evaporate on a concrete slab.”

“Juliette-“ His body presses closer and I realize I’m paying attention to nothing but the dandelions blowing wishes in my lungs.”

“Killing time isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I’ve been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.”

“His lips are spelling secrets and my ears are spilling ink, staining my skin with his stories.”

Smashwords 'BN' 'Apple' etc update

Hi folks,

Just a forewarning... I'm going to unpublish my novels from the smashwords catalogue on Monday 9th Jan '12. This means my books will no longer be available on ebook stores such as Barnes & Noble etc that smashwords distribute to. There are a number of reasons why I'm no longer publishing through smashwords, the biggest being the piracy issues. I'm considering having my own ebook store where readers can download epubs of my novels for their nook but until then my books will only be available through kindle. I know it's a pain in the behind but until Barnes & Noble change their policy and allow non-US residents to publish through pubIt! I won't have my ebooks available in epub (unless you're a reviewer). 
I'm giving the heads up over the weekend and would really appreciate you guys spreading the word so that readers who have downloaded books 1 and 2 in a series can download book 3 while it's still available in epub - I'm thinking of those folks who have been reading Warriors of Ankh in particular because book 3 has just come out.... so if you have a Nook and you've been waiting on Shades of Blood to hit BN you can download it now for Nook in epub from Smashwords instead - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/111333

The situation isn't ideal, I know, and I'm hoping to have a system all in place by the end of April. In the meantime the books are of course available for kindle (and remember, you don't need a kindle device to download and read kindle books... you can download onto your computer).

So... they'll be unpublished from Monday 9th Jan.

Cheers guys


Sam x

Ari on a T-shirt

More books...




Hard Copies

The Vampire Stalker by Allison Van Diepen

Eden by Keary Taylor

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Legend by Marie Lu

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare


Kindle Books

Sterling by Dannika Dark

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Pyxis by K.C. Neal

Riley Jenson Guardian Series kindle books 1-9 by Keri Arthur

Sookie Stackhouse Series kindle books 1-11 by Charlaine Harris

Night Huntress Series kindle books 1-6 by Jeaniene Frost

Vampire Shift by Tim O'Rourke

Prince of Wolves by Quinn Loftis

Illuminated by Erica Orloff



Sam x

P.S. Shades of Blood (Warriors of Ankh #3) is now available to purchase in paperback from amazon.com

The Fade

While I've been cooped up inside, safe from the storm ripping through Scotland, I've been pondering the dilemma that is The Chronicles of the Fade.
When I first started writing about this world I jotted down notes for a possible two to three more books. After I published Slumber, however, I couldn't seem to get those ideas to work without ruining what has become a special book to me. Perhaps it's because Slumber is a fantasy novel set in a world created completely from my own imagination that makes it different for me from my other books, but I'm afraid to do anything that will detract from the first story. I've finally come up with plans for a second book that I'm happy with but... those plans mean there will only be two books. I know some of you have asked for it to be extended to a trilogy or even a quadrilogy as originally planned and I'm so sorry to not be doing that for you... but I feel adding to the story in order to lengthen the series would be detrimental to the quality of the storytelling itself.

So... the other problem... it can no longer be called Chronicles of the Fade... well it could be... but it would just make me laugh :-p

The series has been renamed The Fade. Slumber (The Fade: Part One) and Sneak Thievery (The Fade: Part Two). Now I never say never... if somewhere down the line I do feel another book would work in the series then I will write it for all you Fade fans. For now, however, the plans are to finish Sneak Thievery with an ending that will satisfy as a conclusion to that world.

Cheers,

Sam x

Shades of Blood (WOA #3) - OUT NOW!

Warning... if you haven't read the first two books in the series there is a spoiler in the trailer below...

Hey folks,

Good news! Shades of Blood, the final installment in the Warriors of Ankh trilogy is now available to download in ebook! Yay! The paperback edition will be available on amazon.com by the original release date of Dec 12th. Moreover, the Warriors of Ankh Omnibus edition is also now available to download in ebook! Here are the links...

amazon.com - kindle $3.99

amazon.co.uk - kindle £2.94

amazon.de - kindle EUR 3,43

Smashwords - multiple ebook formats including Epub for Nook etc $3.99

amazon.com - kindle $6.49

amazon.co.uk - kindle £4.78

Smashwords - multiple ebook formats including epub for Nook $6.49
















It's very strange to say goodbye to these characters, I've had so much fun writing them. I hope you all enjoy the last adventure... or if you're new to the Ankh, I hope you enjoy the ride :-)


Sam x

Warriors of Ankh Omnibus Edition

When Shades of Blood (Warriors of Ankh #3) releases I will also be releasing an Omnibus Edition of the trilogy :-) The Omnibus will be available in ebook only. 

When the heroine and the villain are one in the same…

Eden is a Soul Eater. While that hasn’t meant much to her in the past, she’s pretty sure any minute now she’s going to go all "Carrie" on her eleventh grade class.

Noah is an Ankh. As an immortal Warrior, his purpose in life is to hunt down and kill Soul Eaters.

Together they are about to embark on a journey that will change their lives forever...

... A journey in search of Eden’s redemption.

But with enemies and tests of morality and strength around every corner, it will be a journey that pushes them both to their very limits.

Can the promise of honor, purpose and love be enough to temper the monster within?

Find out in this special omnibus edition of the Warriors of Ankh trilogy.

Includes:

Book One - Blood Will Tell

Book Two - Blood Past

Book Three - Shades of Blood

Plus bonus material:  The first six chapters of Smokeless Fire, Book One in Samantha Young’s brand new YA paranormal romance series, Fire Spirits.

The Warriors of Ankh Omnibus Edition is recommended for ages 16 and up.

Sam x



Love is Darkness by Caroline Hanson

Love is Darkness (Valerie Dearborn #1)
by Caroline Hanson

amazon - kindle £0.72

Book Description (taken from goodreads)

Valerie Dearborn wants a cotton candy life, but it’s more like a puffer fish: pointy, unusual, and—if not prepared exactly right—deadly.

In London for graduate school, Val knows she's finally free. Her father and ex-almost-boyfriend are back in California and she's out of the Vampire hunting biz for good. Or is she?

She draws the attention of Lucas, a 1600 year old Vampire, and King to his kind. He’s also wicked hot. As golden as Lucifer, and just as tempting, he makes Valerie an offer she can't refuse— help him find out if the Others (Empaths, Fey and Werewolves) still exist or he'll stop protecting those she loves.

Lucas tells her that Empaths were a Vampire’s biggest weakness before going extinct hundreds of years ago. While the Fey or a Werewolf might kill a Vampire, an Empath could enslave them, seducing or harming with emotions at will. The one detail he leaves out? Valerie is an Empath.

And after 1600 years of an emotionless existence, Lucas wants Valerie like a recovering alcoholic wants a wine cooler.

Can she keep those she loves alive, stop Lucas from munching on her, survive a fanged revolution and still find a way to have that boring, normal life she’s always wanted? Probably not, but boy is she gonna try!

My Thoughts

I’m on an adult urban fantasy kick at the moment and Caroline Hanson’s Love is Darkness was a delicious meal in my feeding frenzy. Hanson’s modern, smooth and polished prose drew me in from the first page. I was immediately engaged by Val and Jack, the tension and chemistry between them was absolutely electric! Val is an incredibly likeable heroine. There’s a lot about her that’s relatable - certain insecurities, loneliness, a drive for something ‘more’. She just wants an ordinary life away from paranormal danger (I loved how her reactions to the paranormal were so authentic) and the conflicted pull she has between wanting this and a certain hot hunter was expressed extremely well. I have to love Val for her backbone and resolve.

With a great sense of humour and an intense loyalty towards the people in her life (a loyalty that is used against her), Val is a great character. She plays off of Lucas just as well as she does Jack which was frustratingly brilliant I must say. Lucas was just as compelling as Jack. Sometimes I find one male hero shines less than the other but I’m on the fence with this one. OK, maybe I’m leaning more towards Jack but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy every second Lucas was on the page. The ending was like ahhhh no ‘I need more!’ I’m so glad book 2 is out in ten days. Seriously, seriously impressed with this book, not just as an indie (an amazingly professional, polished and well-structured indie), but as an adult pnr book in general. It holds its own among some of my favourite writers such as Charlaine Harris, Chloe Neill and Keri Arthur. It’s full of humour, action and sizzling chemistry. Fans of adult urban fantasy will love it!

Five Massive Massive Stars!

Sam x

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian (Lux #1)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Paperback release date Dec 6th 2011

amazon - Kindle £4.49

Book Description

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is. (taken from goodreads)


My Thoughts

I preordered Obsidian in paperback but when I discovered it was released onto Kindle early I had to download it and devour it immediately. I loved Jennifer Armentrout’s debut Half-Blood and, as a fan of Roswell, couldn’t wait to get into what had been coined a Roswell-esque YA Sci-fi romance. Well, other than a girl from a small town falling in with a group of aliens who live under the guise of humans, the story (other than basic genre plot devices) is one all its own.

I have to say… I think I loved Obsidian even more than Half-Blood. Seriously, just couldn’t put the book down. The heroine, Katy, is a brilliant heroine. She’s bookish (love that she’s a book blogger), she’s kind of quiet but she has this innate strength and fiery temper (especially when it comes to Daemon). The prose is modern and smooth, really easy to get sucked into. The plot is fast-paced, engaging, and just incredibly entertaining. BUT the best part of Obsidian is the interaction between Daemon and Katy. Daemon is a first class dick half of the time… and I mean first class! Grr, he really pissed me off sometimes… then he’d go being all sweet and protective and you just wanted to slap him upside the head for being so irritatingly yummy. I totally understood Katy’s dilemma and yet really appreciate how her character never gave into him and how she stood up for herself (the spaghetti scene in the cafeteria was awesome!). The chemistry between these two is off the charts AMAZING. The bonus scenes at the end of the novel told from Daemon’s POV were fantastic and really gave the reader insight into him – it made the reader understand why he was such a douchebag sometimes.

Anyhoo…if you like yourself a hot YA romance with healthy helpings of suspense, humour and action… then you should definitely pick up Obsidian.

Now on my favourites shelf.

Five Massive Massive Stars!

Sam x

Christmas & Thank you's!

What is this poor dog looking at? Clearly, whatever it is it's traumatising... add that to having been forced into a Santa suit and this little miter is having one bad day.

Happy First Day in December!

I’m a Christmas person. I love the Christmas lights and some of the music (Wizard and Slade!), I love the smells, I love Edinburgh at Christmas with the lights in the trees, the ice rink in the gardens, the smells from the German market, the ferris wheel on Princes Street. Edinburgh at Christmas time is magical. And I love the present giving. I love searching for silly little things that make sense only to me and the person I’m giving it to, and wrapping them all up in shiny paper (I am a magpie!). This year Christmas is even more exciting because for the first year, EVER, in my life I don’t need to worry about how I’m going to pay my bills and pay for Christmas presents, dreading the month of January when I have to find a way to scrape by. It’s an amazing feeling this year to have been able to not only buy Christmas pressies for the ones I love, but to spoil them rotten! I can’t wait to see their faces on Christmas morning. I’m such a child!! But seriously, this year has been one of the most wonderful years ever. I’ve worked my ass off more than I ever have, but I’ve enjoyed doing it, and I’ve met some lovely people who have helped make my dream of being a full time writer come true. Because of those people, because of my writing, I have been able to pay off the thousands of pounds of debt I accumulated as a student. It’s not all paid but it’s getting there and the relief is unfrickingbelievable! I started off this year unemployed, having to live off my parents… and I’m ending it doing my dream job and spoiling my parents at Christmas as a way to say thank you for all their support. Seriously… if it weren’t for my mum and dad I wouldn’t have been able to get my books off the ground. They clothed and fed me and kept a roof over my head, giving me all the support I needed so I could write more books and get them out there. Yay for my mum and dad! They’re awesome!

I also want to thank all the book bloggers and readers who have been so supportive and so lovely and encouraging this year. Rachel, Ana, Katie B, Alex, Karen, Sandra, Jena, Avery, Mindy, Jaime, Megan, Caitlin, Yara, Anne, Lucy, Jamie M, Kelsey, Leilani, Emma, Laura (FB), Chantal (FB), Emma (FB), Dwayne, Katie (FB), Courtney (FB), Cait, Alisa, Kathy, Christin, Jenny, Lisa, Dawn (FB), Beth (FB), Jennifer A, Proserpine, and Sarah. I’m so sorry if I’ve left any bloggers off of there, I LOVE you all!!!

A big thanks also to Bella B, Maria D, Mariela, Betsy, Janet W, Jocelyn, Melissa, Maghon, Lisa P, Sarrie, Chantel, Monique, Ashley B, Jaimie, Sally,Sara H, Brittany, Tammy, Michelle, Leslie, Bailey, Sharon, Sara A, Morgan, Stephanie, Barbara, Mauna, April, Aimee, Jaime A, Jessika, Tara, Rachael, Jenn, Danielle, Shawanda, Jennifer D, Angelina, Crystal and so many more amazing readers who have contacted me through FB and Twitter etc. You guys rock! Again I’m sorry if I missed anyone out, my brain is mush (it’s full of Christmas music!) but I love and appreciate every single person who takes the time to pick up my books.

A huge thank you and love to my beautiful bestie (anyone watch The Big Bang Theory? *snigger*) Kate McJ, for not only being my bestie, but for being a fantabulous proofreader/editor to me this year as well.

A huge thank you to Claudia McKinney at Phatpuppyart for being an all-round lovely person and the supremely talented artist who created the stunning cover art for Slumber, Smokeless Fire, Scorched Skies and Sneak Thievery.

I also want to throw a thanks over to the amazing indie writers whose novels gave me an escape from my own ‘character and world-building overload’ when I needed it – M.Leighton, Jamie McGuire, Amanda Hocking, J L Bryan, Tammy Blackwell, Keary Taylor, Susan Bischoff, Heather Killough-Walden and Shelly Crane. Again, I’m sorry if I’ve missed anyone!! Love you guys, ‘YOU IS AWESOME’.

I wanted to do all the end of year thanking now because I love Christmas but I hate New Years. Hate it. Ugh. Lol. Anyway, I hate New Years, but I’m looking forward to 2012 because I have so many projects on the go. I’m looking forward to publishing more in the Fire Spirits series, the sequel to Slumber, the companion novella to Drip Drop Teardrop, and the first in the Lunarmorte Repercussions series. I also at some point want to start writing an Adult Urban Fantasy series I’ve been thinking about BUT I don’t think I’ll manage to cram that in this year. *Shrugs and winks* we’ll see.

Now I’m off to the dentist (way to kill the Christmas joy).

Sam x