News from Some Trusty Bookworms (01.03.13)

Posted by chriskuhn on Jan 3, 2013 in Authors, Blog, Books, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Each week, I plan to share  updates not only on the latest development news with my own first book in progress and that wonderfully frightening but exciting process, but also any author or book release news that I’ve stumbled upon in my travels for some of my favorites. And if you’ve recently begun following me because either you do share similar reading tastes or you are interested in the contemporary romance genre that I am working toward joining myself, then you will likely find some of the news below of interest.

So, this week, in case you missed it, some trusty bookworms passed along to me…

• A group of fans of Sylvain Reynard and his books recently revamped their own blog celebrating his characters and works by launching The Argyle Empire at the first of the year. If you have read Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture and were swept away as much as me and the growing Professor Emerson fan club population, then you are going to want to check out this great fansite.

• M. Leighton followers and contemporary romance fans, in general: if you contemplated reading Ms. Leighton’s Down to You, consider picking up the e-book this week. Down to You is only $0.99 on Amazon.com Kindle between now and January 6, when her follow-up to the novel, Up to Me becomes available for purchase and download.

• Bookish Temptations will be launching its next Book Club on Saturday, Jan. 5 about S.C. Stephens’ Thoughtless. It’s a terrific book if you haven’t explored Stephens’ work already. I highly recommend. Best of all, Stephens’ follow-up Effortless is available for download so you won’t have to wait long to find out what happens next..because you know that’s how we crazy readers are! And thankfully, Stephens’ panting fans do not have too long to wait for the third installment Reckless scheduled for release March 5, 2013! Facebook fans of the writer have been in a frenzy these past few weeks spreading the word about the author’s Facebook page as the author has promised a preview of Reckless (the first two chapters!) once the page reaches 20,000 likes and a special POV scene not found elsewhere when the page achieves 25,000 likes. (As of this writing, the page is only shy by 600 or so for its first milestone…good luck, fellow followers! ) Update — 1/4/13 — The author reached 20,000 likes and released chapter 1 of Reckless (click here for the link!) There are plenty of extras after the first chapter but chapter 2 will now be released after 25,000 likes are achieved. Enjoy!

• If you are a fan of the Breathing series, you may want to check out this link. Author Rebecca Donovan (Reason to Breathe and Barely Breathing) did an interview with Alexis Avila of Prepped and Polished and talked about her success so far, the reaction to the characters and her own processes as a writer. Her third installment Out of Breath is scheduled for a June 2013 release. Here is the link to that 20-minute audio interview…enjoy!

• Donovan has also teamed up with Tammara Webber (Easy) in December 2012 and throughout January 2013 on a UK blog tour called “Love Hurts,” as the two respond to Q&As, offer giveaways and share novel excerpts. You can follow along at the various blogs they are visiting. I absolutely love this idea of a blog tour and cannot wait to learn more about how it works for my own future book promotion. Here is a link to Webber’s recent blog on the subject for more details.

• Finally, kudos to Colleen Hoover and a lovely way to wrap up a stellar year. Her readers (this one included) snatched up her latest release Hopeless on e-book as soon as they could get their grubby little hands on it and clearly told their friends, because the book took off like a rocket and stayed within the top of the e-book charts on Amazon throughout the end of the year. To thank her fans and those who inspired her, Hoover blogged in her post “Paying it Forward…” that she would donate the proceeds from all sales of Hopeless during the final 30 hours of the year to a trio of organizations near and dear to her. The result? A total of $30,000 is being donated across the three groups, and all because of one talented writer, thousands of loyal fans and the beauty of social media. Gotta love it. See what we can do, folks, when we set our minds to it…

I’ll be sharing some info about my own writing journey in a future blog, so look for that soon. In the meantime, don’t forget you can receive email updates from this blog as new posts become available, so just enter your email address under the little red “Subscribe” heading top right of the page.

Until next time, happy reading!

ck