They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

Run for the hills!

Ok, first off, tomorrow (Thursday, July 1st) is the LAST day to enter my contest! Remember, you can get a sampler of seven different upcoming Ace/Roc releases, several of them MONTHS before the books hit shelves. Enter! Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Also! Please remember the signing that will take place on July 10th! Details are in this post, and Kasey and I would love to see folks there.

And now! More wild book sightings from all over the country!

From Columbia, Missouri!


From Amherst, NY!


From Manhattan, NY!


And from Pasadena, CA!


Thanks to everyone who has tracked down these pics for me, you guys are all amazing! I hope you're all enjoying the book, too!

Books in the Wild!

Yes, it's not due out for another week, technically, but does it surprise anyone that my book has escaped custody early? I mean, really?

Kiddo, modeling the latest in UF fashion:


And a bigger display, with friends!


And speaking of friends, happy release day to Kasey MacKenzie and RED HOT FURY!

Contest Time!

You know you guys love it.
First off, the obligatory reminder about the joint book signing coming up in July! Be there, folks!

Ok, what I am giving away this time is 5 (that’s FIVE) copies of the Ace/Roc summer sampler!

And you’re saying “I don’t want a sample, I want the whole book!” Ah ha, but see what we have here:

You get an excerpt of my book, A DEVIL IN THE DETAILS. You get an excerpt of Kasey MacKenzie’s book, RED HOT FURY. Both of these books are released within the next week or so.

BUT! You also get excerpts of five more books that aren’t due out until September and October! Lo, I give you summaries:

DUST – Joan Frances Turner


Nine years ago, Jessie had a family. Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian. Now, she eats very fresh meat.
Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash and died. Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one—something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.

But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights have seen new creatures in the woods—things not human and not zombie. A strange new illness has flamed up out of nowhere, causing the undeads to become more alive and the living to exist on the brink of death. As bits and pieces of the truth fall around Jessie, like the flesh off her bones, she’ll have to choose between looking away or staring down the madness—and hanging onto everything she has come to know as life…

I’ve been eyeing this one for quite a while, and when I got these samplers, I turned to this one first! Had to find out if I could make it through the excerpt without putting the book in the freezer. And hey, I did! This is going on my “zombie-phobia therapy” list, for sure.

GHOST OF A CHANCE – Simon R. Green


A brand-new series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightside novels!

The Carnacki Institute exists to "Do Something" about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.

A new series from an author I love anyway. How does this get any better?

QUEEN OF SHADOWS – Dianne Sylvan


Meet Miranda Grey-music and magic are in her blood.

Overwhelmed by her uncanny ability to manipulate people's emotions through her music, Miranda Grey comes to the attention of vampire lord David Solomon. Believing he can help bring her magic under control, David discovers that Miranda's powers may affect the vampire world too...

THE SILENT ARMY – James Knapp


The pulse-pounding sequel to State of Decay
Federal agent Nico Wachalowski must stop Samuel Fawkes from awakening his own private army of zombies even if it means killing the woman he loves-now resurrected as a "Revivor"-permanently.

I haven’t read the first one of this series, but I most certainly will now. (Consider it more therapy for my zombie phobia)

GRAVE WITCH – Kalayna Price


Not even death can save her now.

As a grave witch, Alex Craft can speak to the dead-she's even on good terms with Death himself. As a consultant for the police, she's seen a lot of dark magic, but nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she's raising a "shade" involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life. Someone really doesn't want her to know what the dead have to say, and she'll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why...


And there you have it folks, you can get little peeks at all of these mouth-watering choices.

I will, of course, sign my portion, and if you can wait until after July 10th to receive your prize, I will have Kasey sign her portion too! (It’s up to you to stalk the other five authors to get their John Hancocks)

So! To enter, leave a comment. No tricky questions this time, just let your shout-out be heard. On Friday, July 2nd, I will use a random number generator to pick five lucky winners.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hey you! Yeah you there in the back! Stop texting and pay attention! This is important!

JULY 10TH! CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR!

Two, count 'em TWO debut authors will be signing books at a Kansas City bookstore. Who, you might ask?

None other than K.A. STEWART, author of A DEVIL IN THE DETAILS, and KASEY MacKENZIE, author of RED HOT FURY!

And now I go to jail for caps lock abuse.

But okay, here's the important details:

The signing will be at 4 P.M., Saturday July 10th, at Borders:

Borders
8628 North Boardwalk Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64154

I would love to put one of those map-type things up, but face it, I'm not that savvy.

Would love to see folks there, and face it, I have no shame, I'll sign just about anything you want. (I said just about. It's a family event.) ((pervs))

Also: Received a nice box of these today!



These are samplers. If you're lucky enough to be attending one of a variety of cons this year where Ace/Roc are in attendance, you can pick up one of these bad boys. They contain excerpts of seven different novels, including mine, and Kasey's!

I have an entire box here of them, so I may try and figure out SOMEthing to do with them... *whistles innocently* Stay tuned.

News and Stuffs!

First off, I have another review here at Buddy Hollywood by the lovely (and if I may say so myself, very talented) Alice Loweecy!

Second off (why does no one ever SAY this? I mean, if we have a first off, there should be a second off, yes?), I will be posting a schedule of where to find me around the web, starting soon! There will be interviews, philosophical musings, and maybe some giveaways. Stay tuned!

Third, my friend Kasey MacKenzie's book, Red Hot Fury, releases NEXT TUESDAY! But, a few lucky folks have found it already lurking on bookstore shelves, so keep an eye out.

Fourth: If you have not read Rob Thurman's Chimera, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.



This is an amazing new book, more Sci-Fi than UF (not to be confused with SyFy which is both sad and lame, the exact OPPOSITE of this book). Even if you've never read her books before (she's the author of the equally awesome Cal Leandros series) you should definitely check this one out.

I got a box!

Today, when I got home, there was a box sitting on my front porch.

When I opened it up, I found this!


So of course, I had to get them all out and play with them.


Sadly, I don't have enough to actually build a fort as I had promised to do, but I did manage to build a quite respectable little bungalow. Or something.


Say it with me, folks! Squeeeeeeeee!

I have awesome friends

Just had to share this. If you take a gander at my sidebar, you will see the blog of a lovely lady named Jen Hayley. What you don't know is that she's amazing at song spoofs. So here is my new favorite song. Enjoy.



For more fun, go check out Jen's blog!

28 Days, 4 Weeks, 2 Fortnights

However you want to measure it, the countdown is on! We’re officially at the “under a month” mark until the release of A DEVIL IN THE DETAILS!

I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m petrified. I want to be writing books for the rest of my life, and it all starts with this first one. In the immortal words of Fezzik: “Inigo? I hope we win.”



Sometimes, the enormity of it is a bit overwhelming. I think my hubby said it best when he looked at me one day and said “When you actually get what you’ve been dreaming of, what do you dream of next?”

So, what do I dream of now? Well, good sales, of course. That one’s a given. Good reviews. I’ve got a good start there so far. Bestseller status? Yeah, that’d be sweet, though highly unlikely for a debut. But eventually, sure! Gimme!

Rowling-like levels of wealth? Who wouldn’t want that? But in reality, I just want to be able to support my family on my writing. The Real Job™ is in an industry where things change on a daily basis, and I never kid myself into thinking that this job will be around forever. I’d rest easier if I knew I had a solid income to fall back on.

Like everybody else, I’m just a person. I have a kiddo I want to put through college someday. I have a house payment. I have two aging vehicles that will need replacing at some point in the future, and the normal day-to-day maintenance of being a homeowner.

I try to keep my dreams on a realistic level. Having enough, rather than having it all. Shooting for the stars, so to speak, always seemed a bit greedy.

But sometimes, just sometimes, when no one else is looking, I dream big.

So yeah. I hope we win, Inigo.

What It's All For

Found this on my front porch tonight, courtesy of The Editor (who is freakin' amazing)



My first copy of my first book.

Just...wow.

Reviews & Contests!

Been an interesting week!

My first reviews are starting to trickle in (well, ok, two) but one of them is a starred review in Publisher's Weekly! (starred reviews are big deals) Here's the link, scroll to the very bottom of the page.

They like me, they really like me!

And as for contests, skip on over to the Dear Author blog for the ACE/ROC Summer Giveaway! In addition to 3 (count it, THREE!) ARCs of A DEVIL IN THE DETAILS, they're also giving away a TON of other great upcoming books. There's gotta be something there for everyone to love.

In writing news, almost done getting beta notes back, gonna start writing all that up this weekend I think. Dr. Gita is helping me (read: taking charge of, and bless her) set up a launch party and there may or may not be a book signing to go with it! I'll keep you all posted.