The Werewolf’s Devotion short story release and giveaway

It’s finally here! The Necromancer Books, The Necromancer's Seduction, The Werewolf's Devotion, Mimi SebastianMy short story from the world of the Necromancer Books. A small tale, but Brandon holds a special place in my heart 🙂 as does the lovely cover done by Kim Killion.

I’m only offering The Werewolf’s Devotion booklet as a giveaway via various contests, blog spots, etc. So as part of the release, if you comment on my blog or send me an e-mail at mimi@mimisebastian.com and put Werewolf Devotion in the subject line, today and tomorrow, I’ll pick one person to receive the booklet. And, if you hop on over to Camelia Miron Skiba’s blog today, check out her review, and leave a comment, and/or hop over to TiffyFit’s Reading Corner on Facebookfor additional opportunities to win the booklet 🙂

I’ll announce the winners Friday. If you leave a comment instead of e-mailing me, please leave your e-mail in your comment and I’ll contact the winner with specifics. Thanks for stopping by!! And thanks Camelia and Tiffany for participating!

Back cover copy:

I wheeled around. I hadn’t noticed anyone behind me.

Brandon’s quirked eyebrow reached the bangs of his wavy brown hair. His thin frame, straddling a wood cathedral chair, belied the power visible underneath his worn jeans and . . . surprise fluttered through me at the sight of his priest habit. A werewolf priest?

He stood and walked over, taking my hand in a firm shake. He smiled. “I’m used to that look.”

I’m not even going to try to understand how a wolf can reside within a priest. As if reading my thoughts, he said, “Even the beasts need to confess.”

-Excerpt from The Necromancer’s Seduction

Before the werewolf priest, Brandon Ross, ever met the necromancer, Ruby Montagne, he’d adopted a quiet life in the Northeastern Brazilian countryside. There he dedicated himself to the parish and immersion in the local culture, even if it brought temptation in the beautiful town doctor, Solange Neves.

Now discover the story of how Brandon became a werewolf and the troubled past he seeks to escape. As he struggles to make sense of the new, darker power that has taken control of him—of the monster he has become—will Solange be his salvation or his ruin?

October update and Halloween short

October in Phoenix means I can once again enjoy the outside. It’s only 80+ after all 🙂 But the evenings and mornings are glorious, and we put up our Halloween decorations! It’s the only holiday in which I decorate the house. There’s just something about hanging skeletons from the roof that appeals to me and I’m not going to explore that thought any further. One of the many lovely advantages of having a five year old is enjoying the holiday through him. I get to trick or treat again!! And this year we’re doing the zombie walk!photo-5

Lots of things going on this month. I’m  participating in a Fall into Fantasy giveaway (click here to go to Rafflecopter) and releasing my short story, titled The Werewolf’s Devotion,  about my werewolf character, Brandon, from the Necromancer’s Seduction. And I heard from ImaJinn that they plan on continuing on with the contracted books after the passing of Linda Kichline. We will become an imprint of Bell Books/Belle Bridge Books. I’m excited about joining Belle Bridge. So it looks good for a March 2014 release for book two in the Necromancer Series. It has to be pretty intense for Linda’s family after her death, and I greatly appreciate the care they’ve taken with the ImaJinn authors.

So I promised a Halloween short!! Ruby and Adam take a stroll through a cemetery. What can go wrong when a necromancer and a revenant visit the dead? Enjoy!

I should have known beforehand to walk away when a revenant asked if I wanted to take a “little stroll” through a cemetery on Halloween night.

On the positive side, I did learn something new about Adam, my revenant, but would have really preferred to have read it in a manual. Hands on learning is over-rated.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, yet it tests my evasion of the supernatural world. The supernatural community goes all out on the one night when strange happenings are tolerated by the general public. Cora, my grandmother, had always attended some killer party held by the witches, and constantly pestered me to accompany her. I almost surrendered to her indomitable will a couple of times, then remembered my mother’s death, chilling my enthusiasm.

We arrived at the cemetery, situated next to a church in the fashion of cozy European village cemeteries. Many of the dead rested in old tombs and masoleums, nestled among lush shrubs and shrouded by trees. We climbed the brick wall and dropped to the thick grass next to a stone angel, her white marble stained green by algae. The nearly full moon served only to lengthen the shadows cast by the trees and graves.dreamstime_xs_11736769

“Somehow, this just doesn’t feel as foreboding as when I was alive,” Adam said. “Why don’t you raise some zombies?” Continue reading

Fall into Fantasy Giveaway

Lots of giveaways this month, this time of the year, so lots of opportunities for freebies and swag!! I will be participating in this giveaway with lots of cool authors so check it out 🙂

fall into fantasy large

Click here to go to Rafflecopter to enter.

Swag and books up for grabs from Niteblade Magazine, Ash Krafton, Sharon Buchbinder, Lisa Kessler, Mina Khan among other great authors!

 

Avast! Today be talk like a pirate day!

Yo ho! I give you good day!Talk like a pirate day, Mimi Sebastian

For today is international talk like a pirate day. To find out more, run out the sweeps and visit the official site for talk like a pirate day!

If you haven’t at all noticed, I do love pirates. The more I read about them, the more fascinated I become so much so I’m planning, sweating, editing furiously to finish my pirate book to self publish by the end of this year, which I discuss on a previous blog post here.

To add to my excitement, next year premieres Black Flag, a tv show about the pirates on New Providence in the Bahamas which was a pirate enclave during the Golden Age of piracy. Sounds like it will be more of a realistic portrayal. Fingers crossed anyhow.

So go about ‘n have a bit ‘o grog, and good luck to ‘ee and a fair wind. To end on the words of our brother, Black Sam Bellamy:

“They villify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage.”

Faith of the Fallen Cover Reveal

I’m furiously editing to complete my short story Faith of the Fallen, which features one of my characters, the werewolf Brandon, from the Necromancer Series. One of the reasons I’m so excited is because Kim Killion designed such an amazing cover. Here it is!!!

Faith of the Fallen, Necromancer Books, Mimi Sebastian

This story was one of those moments where the words wrote themselves. I loved Brandon’s character and wondered, well, how did he become a werewolf. I mean, he’s a priest for crying out loud. And then it came to me in 3,000 or so words. Part of the inspiration for his story was the setting, and I asked Kim, in designing the cover, if she could find a background that represented the Northeast of Brazil, also called the sertao. A very dry, semi-arid region. My parents were born in Sao Paulo, (I’ve probably watched every World Cup soccer tournament since like the crib) and I lived and worked in both Recife and Salvador, Brazil, Northeastern coastal cities, and my work took me to the sertao quite often. Brazil is very culturally diverse, and it’s regions can differ quite a bit in topography. So while you had places like the sertao:

sertao work pic

I’m pictured above with some Brazilian work colleagues in a typical village in the Northeastern countryside, and below are some wonderful kiddos in one of the communities.

kids in sertao

You also had pristine beach areas like this:

beach with jeep

Why am I living in the desert? Sigh.

Anyway, back to Faith of the Fallen. In the story, I feature the Sao Joao festival, which occurs every year in the countryside, and is a wonderful celebration of Northeastern country culture with lots of food and drink, but that’s typical of any Brazilian celebration 🙂

One of the most amazing things I experienced while working in the Northeast, was that even in the more disadvantaged parts of the country, like the sertao, people always share what little food they have on hand. I worked on projects to help increase access to potable water in the farming communities pictured above, and when we visited the projects, people brought out more food for us then they wold probably eat in a week. Always a very humbling experience.

So with that background, I bring you Brandon’s short story. I’m only going to offer Faith of the Fallen, beginning in October, as a print giveaway during blog tours and as part of a Halloween/October giveaway, and periodically thereafter. I’ll announce the opportunities here and on the Facebook page for the Necromancer Series as they come up.

So, as they would say in Brazil, abraco (hugs) and boa sorte (good luck).

Back cover copy for Faith of the Fallen:

I wheeled around. I hadn’t noticed anyone behind me.

Brandon’s quirked eyebrow reached the bangs of his wavy brown hair. His thin frame, straddling a wood cathedral chair, belied the power visible underneath his worn jeans and . . . surprise fluttered through me at the sight of his priest habit. A werewolf priest?

He stood and walked over, taking my hand in a firm shake. He smiled. “I’m used to that look.”

I’m not even going to try to understand how a wolf can reside within a priest. As if reading my thoughts, he said, “Even the beasts need to confess.”

-Excerpt from The Necromancer’s Seduction

Before the werewolf priest, Brandon Ross, ever met the necromancer, Ruby Montagne, he’d adopted a quiet life in the Northeastern Brazilian countryside. There he dedicated himself to the parish and immersion in the local culture, even if it brought temptation in the beautiful town doctor, Solange Neves.

Now discover the story of how Brandon became a werewolf and the troubled past he seeks to escape. As he struggles to make sense of the new, darker power that has taken control of him—of the monster he has become—will Solange be his salvation or his ruin?

We Love Our Demon Heroes: Discussion with Jocelyn Dex

Thanks for stopping by today. I’ve been looking forward to this post. You can also find it here, on Jocelyn Dex’s blog: Demons Do It Better, which is an appropriate name given our “panel” discussion today on demons. Jocelyn features demons in her book Araya’s Addiction and they play a big role in my Necromancer Books. To get us in the mood, here is the cover of Araya’s Addiction featuring a hunky demon 🙂Araya's Addiction, Demon Paranormal

So let’s get to the discussion and please join us by leaving a comment!

More and more books feature demons, all taking a slightly different approach, which is fun like where they come from, their powers and types. Can you speak a little to the demons in your stories?

Jocelyn: I created several different types of demons for my Sempire Seductions series, but the Sempires can teleport, are very strong, and without, um, semen, they will weaken and eventually die. (Hey, I write erotic romance. It works.) Most of them also carry over some sort of power from their fathers.

Mimi: I loved the semen factor in your book! I don’t know what that says about me, but it’s a unique approach. My demons come from another realm and have interfered, influenced the human realm going back to ancient Sumeria, if not further. They’re not demons from “Hell”, and have a very defined social structure. That’s about all I can say 🙂

Let’s talk demons vs other supernatural males, like vampires, werewolves, fae, etc.

Mimi: There’s something to me that’s very primal about demons. I love vampires, but vampires almost seem too polished, and they were also once human. Maybe it’s their age as well, making them somewhat jaded. Demons feel more dirty and sweaty to me, LOL. And when you unleash the demon, you let loose that primal force, like a hurricane, that you can’t control. It’s scary and frickin’ sexy at the same time.

Jocelyn: Ha. Dirty and sweaty. I agree with that. I like the grittiness of demons and I feel like there are no rules with them. I also dig vampires, but there are so many preconceived notions when it comes to them. Demons can be whatever you want without too many preconceived ideas of what they should be.

I’m not a big fan of shifters (werewolves, big cats, etc.), but every once in awhile I come across a story with shifters that catches my interest and turns out okay. I read a gargoyle romance a few months ago and really enjoyed that. It was something different and I’m definitely interested in reading more.

Are your demons good or bad or somewhere in between?

Mimi: I like my demons to play in the moral gray areas. While they are not evil, they may at times take actions that stretch those boundaries. My demons come from another dimension and their take on what’s right or wrong is shaped by an entirely different social structure.

Jocelyn: Some of my demons are good, some are bad, but that’s really a matter of perspective. Like Mimi said, the demons’ take on what’s right or wrong is shaped by the world they’re from so it may not jive with humans’ take on right and wrong.

Do they come from another world? How do they coexist in the human world?

Jocelyn: Most of the demons in my stories come from the demon realm and most want to live in the more pleasant human realm or in the veil between realms. Some want to make trouble but most want to live peacefully, undetected by humans.  

Mimi: I jumped the gun and talked about this in the first question. How do they coexist? That is an interesting question. Like Jocelyn said, some do blend in pretending to be human, and some want to cause trouble J

What about some favorite demon heroes from other books or shows?

Mimi: Greyson from Stacia Kane’s Megan Chase series. I also like Ryan from Diana Rowland’s Demon Summoner series, but I’m ready for her to unleash him already. I’m getting a little fatigued with reading about Kara sleeping with every other demon besides Ryan. Talking television, I really liked Cole from Charmed, but hate what they did to him. I wished they would have kept him around, but the actor went on to greener pastures.

Jocelyn: Oooh! Oooh! Me too! Cole from Charmed. Oh man, I loved his character and I was also pissed about what they did to him. I totally blamed Phoebe for his ultimate demise. Bitch. Haha. Anyway, in books, I love Larissa Ione’s Wraith. He’s a sexy badass demon with a smartass attitude. Love him.

Oh and I can’t forget Crowley from Supernatural.  He’s a bad demon but every once in a while does something surprisingly helpful and he has a certain charm. Maybe it’s the accent. 🙂

What are your plans for future demon characters?

Jocelyn: Oh, so many plans! Even though book 2 and 3 of my Sempire Seductions series are still in edits and not yet released, I’ve already started a new series featuring more demons. Different demons, and I love the characters, but I can’t say more than that just yet.

Mimi: Awesome! Can’t wait.

Any final thoughts on why you like demon heroes/heroines?

Mimi: I like that they’re not your typical heroes and are sometimes driven by primal forces beyond their control which makes exploring their vulnerabilities that much more interesting.

Jocelyn: They are the ultimate bad boys and bad girls. What’s not to like?

Thanks for joining the discussion! Here’s info on Jocelyn:

Jocelyn Dex, Araya's AddictionJocelyn was born in Iowa and currently resides in hot-as-hell Texas. She shares her home with her very own 6’4″ alpha male and varying numbers of spoiled cats and dogs. Teaching one of her dogs to file his own nails is one of her all-time favorite accomplishments.

Jocelyn loves to paint, loves to read, and loves to write sizzling erotic romance about yummy demons that would make your momma blush (or not–depends on the momma).

In Memoriam to Publisher and Writer Linda Kichline

I opened my e-mail today and read the sad news. Linda Kichline, the heart and soul of ImaJinn Books, my publisher, passed away after having a stroke. While I hadn’t known Linda for that long, the time I did interact with her was incredibly meaningful to my growth as an author. I queried with ImaJinn last year, and Necromancer’s Seduction released this past July. I decided to submit to ImaJinn because of their focus on Urban Fantasy/Paranormal, and they were publishing one of my favorite vampire Urban Fantasy series by D.B. Reynolds.

Ultimately, whatever drove me to hit send, I felt I’d made the right decision. Linda was always supportive and great to work with and her editing of my manuscript definitely elevated my writing. Both Linda and my editor really liked my story and writing style. I’ve heard, often, at a bigger publishers, the person who edits your manuscript is not always vested in your story or may not even like your writing. For a new author, still building my confidence, it was a great boost to have someone like Linda in my corner.

Linda wrote and had published a witch/warlock series under the name Carin Rafferty, and as Allyson Ryan for Silhouette Books. She also wrote for Harlequin. She started ImaJinn to publish the type of paranormal books not being picked up by many of the larger publishers at the time. If you can imagine. I’m not sure exactly when Linda started ImaJinn, but I think it was 1999, before this explosion of small presses, showing her as a pioneer in the industry and in paranormal romance. If you look at her Goodreads profile, an editor from Penguin commented that Linda had a great grasp of paranormal romance long before it really took off.

I write this blog with great sadness, but Linda left behind a wonderful legacy and I feel so fortunate that she saw something in my writing worth nurturing and investing in. In fact, it makes me very proud. I wish I would have had more time to work with Linda, but am grateful for the time I did share with her. Thank you Linda and rest in peace.

The Conjuring and other not so scary stuff

Part of what you’ll see on my blog from time to time is a discourse on movies, comics, general pop, fan girl culture which feeds my soul. I am a Geek at heart. But first off, I sent in book two, The Necromancer’s Betrayal, to the publisher for the first round of edits. I’m excited about book two but wary as well. The events really test the characters and change some of them, for better or worse? Betrayal is one of those fulcrum books that tips the lever, sending everyone reeling. They also spend more time in the demon realm which was fun to write.

I hadn’t realized how tightly I was wound up until I hit send on that book. My stress levels were pretty high, trying to meet deadlines and take care of all my other responsibilities. Now I basically only have book three to write and polish up my pirate book for self publishing later this year, and fit in time to polish up my short story about the werewolf Brandon, featured in Necromancer Seduction. I feel pretty relieved.

So I did manage to catch the Conjuring, which I’d been anticipating for a long time. Directed by James Wan, the auteur of the first Saw and Insidious. What got me hot and bothered about The Conjuring was Wan intended to harken back to the traditional, atmospheric scary haunted house movies, and did he, but more on that later.

The movie is based on an actual haunting investigated by Lorraine and Ed Warren portrayed wonderfully by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. Say what you will about the Warrens (who also investigated Amityville), I’d love to visit yet not touch their collection of haunted artifacts. Lorraine Warren actually had a brief cameo in the classroom scene. She was seated in the audience.

Wan did a great job portraying a haunted house movie set in the seventies. It felt like a movie filmed in the 70s, kind of like The House of the Devil, directed by Ti West. I saw lots of 70s horror flicks as a kid, so watching these types of movies, where the director calls upon that atmosphere really appeals to me. Ti West also did The Innkeepers which had its share of jump in your seat moments. I give lots of credit to directors who can still get you on the edge of your seat with scenes in which a character is stepping into a dark basement, or walking down a darkened hallway. Wan accomplished that and more. (And I will never play a hide and seek game involving hand clapping. Never.) It’s too easy to rely on gore or some such to get the audience to react. Wan doesn’t need to in the Conjuring. He gives us plenty of scary dolls, and one scene that really did make me hop in my seat and sent my heart racing. I also enjoyed some homage moments to movies like Poltergeist.

The ending was scary, but not in the sense of what actually happened, but by the set up, the implication. I did like his take on the possession sequence, giving something a little different than what we’ve seen in movies like the Exorcist. And Lili Taylor portrayed that perfectly. I can’t imagine having to act out a scene like that. For any Lili Taylor fans, of which I am, she did a movie called The Addiction in the 90s about a grad student who turns into a vampire after getting bitten by one, and then tries to come to terms with her frequent craving for human blood. It was a great, little known vampire movie.

So if you like good, old atmospheric haunted house type movies, definitely check out The Conjuring. Oh, last but most definitely not least, the sound track is incredibly unnerving. In fact, the scene where the family arrives at the house with the music playing just gave it that epic feel, same feeling when watching Halloween and that god-awful, yet brilliant movie score starts playing. That’s what I’m talking about.

Sharon Buchbinder’s Obsession

It’s wonderful having friend and fellow Paranormal Romance Guild author, Sharon Buchbinder, on my blog today. I read Obsession, and if you haven’t read it, pick it up! Sharon did a wonderful job with her characters. I especially liked how she wrote about the cult leaders and their mentality. The setting is exciting and interaction with the local culture and how the indigenous population figured into Angie’s quest to find her son. I really liked Angie as a heroine. She endured a lot of trauma at the hands of her parents, yet managed to survive it and become stronger. I enjoyed the romance between Angie and Alejandro too! He’s hot 🙂Sharon Buchbinder

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hobbies/interests? When did you start writing?

Thank you very much for having me here, Mimi. I’ve been telling stories from childhood and began writing and submitting stories to magazines in high school. I still have the rejection slips from Redbook. I realized I needed to eat, so I set aside the idea of a writing career in favor of a steady income. After working in health care delivery for years, I became an association executive, a health care researcher, and an academic in higher education. I had it all–a terrific, supportive husband, an amazing son and a wonderful job. But that itch to write (some call it an obsession) kept beckoning me to “come on back” to writing fiction. My mid-life crisis consisted of attending a writing retreat in upstate New York. That weekend reinvigorated my muse and I’ve been writing, and working full time ever since. Thanks to innumerable online classes, weekend seminars, boot camps, workshops, the kindness of family, friends, critique partners, and beta readers, I am now published in mystery, horror, and science fiction, as well as contemporary, erotic, paranormal and romantic suspense. When not writing, I can be found trying to make students, colleagues, and babies laugh, teaching, herding cats, waiting on a large gray dog, fishing, or enjoying a good meal and laughs with friends or family.

I need a weekend to invigorate my muse! You have a new release, Obsession, please tell us about it.

Here’s the blurb: A year after a barbaric childbirth, complete with a near-death experience and an encounter with her guardian angel, Angie Edmonds is just happy she and her son, Jake, are alive. She’s finally in a good place: clean, sober, and employed as a defense attorney. But at the end of a long work day, she finds herself in a parent’s worst nightmare: Jake has been kidnapped and taken across the Mexican border by a cult leader who believes the child is the “Chosen One.” Continue reading

Fiery Bride, New Release from Cynthia Woolf

Since we’ve been on the topic of new releases ;), I’m pleased to feature Cynthia Woolf and her new release, Fiery Bride!

Cynthia WoolfCynthia Woolf was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.

She was and is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.

Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and her critique partners for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity

Thanks for joining me today. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hobbies/interests? When did you start writing?

Well let’s see, I’m older than I think I am, except when I get up in the morning and my back hurts, then I think I’m older than I am. 🙂

I like to garden, read and fish.  We haven’t been able to go fishing for several years now, but we are determined to go this year.  My garden is growing but the heat this year is taking its toll.  I don’t like to go out and weed it or water it in the heat and sometimes I forget on our watering day so the flowers are the worse for wear right now.

I wrote my first story at least the one I can remember when I was ten.  It was a romance, of course, about a little boy named David Williams, that I liked at the time.  I’m amazed I still remember his name.

It is amazing some of the things that stick in our minds. Speaking of…How did you get the story idea for your current title? I find the concept for your matchmaker series intriguing.

I wrote the first two books in this series and always knew that I’d be doing Maggie’s story.  She called to me from the very first page of book one.

Are you an outgoing person? Are you a morning or night person?

I have severe insomnia, so I guess I’m a morning and a night person.  As to being outgoing, I don’t think I am.  But I married a very outgoing man, so we’re good in any social situation.

What are your favorite movies?

I love action movies.  Some of my favorites are RED, Terminator, Total Recall.  And I love the Harry Potter movies.  I can always be counted on to watch one of those anytime.

What does your significant other and family think of your writing career?

My husband and family are very supportive of my career.  They are so proud of me.

Does your significant other read your stuff?  Yes, he reads and proofs every book.

Do you use a pen name? If so, how did you come up with it?

I just started using a different name for my scifi romance, CA Woolf.  I want to separate my western and scifi personas and scifi seems to sell better for those authors who use initials.

Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what?

I love listening to the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack when I’m writing historicals.

I listen to that sometimes too! It’s great for historicals.

Blurb for FIERY BRIDE:

Fiery Bride, Cynthia WoolfAfter a disastrous marriage, Matchmaker Maggie vowed never to marry again.  She will never give another man the power of life and death over her body and soul. Unfortunately, that doesn’t keep her lonely heart from fantasizing about her newest client, Caleb Black. She made the mistake of starting a flirtatious correspondence with the clever devil, believing they would never meet. But when his new bride abandons her mid-way to Colorado to elope with another man, Maggie is forced to face the devastatingly handsome Caleb and explain.  Now she’ll have to stay long enough to make things right and find him a new wife.  But Maggie better hang on to her vow with both hands, because Caleb has other plans for the fiery matchmaker…and a very seductive kiss.

Cynthia has lots of other titles to check out!

TITLES AVAILABLE

CENTAURI DAWN

CENTAURI TWILIGHT

CENTAURI MIDNIGHT

TAME A WILD HEART

TAME A WILD WIND

TAME A WILD BRIDE

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA – JENALA

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA – RIZA

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA – HONORA

CAPITAL BRIDE

HEIRESS BRIDE

WEBSITE – www.cynthiawoolf.com

FACEBOOK – www.facebook.com/CynthiaWoolf

Twitter – @CynthiaWoolf

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5148049.Cynthia_Woolf

 

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